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STATEMENT 



TRINITARIAN PRINCIPLE 



LAW OF TRI-PERSONALITY. 



" For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the "Word, 
and the Holy Ghost : and these three are One. 

And there are three that bear witness in earth, the Spirit, the "Water, 

and the Blood : and these three agree in One." 

1 John, 5 : 7, 8. 




BOSTON: 

JOHN P. JEWETT AND COMPANY, 

17 and 19 Cornhill. 

. 1853. 






Entered according to an Act of Congress, in the Year 1853, 

BY JOHN P. JEWETT & CO. 

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts. 




PRINTED D7 PRENTISS AND SAWYER, 
No. 11 Dcvonslure Street. 






^ 






INTRODUCTION 



The following statement of the Trinitarian Principle, 
or Law of Tri-Personality, was made by the writer 
many years since as the foundation of a Universal 
Science, or form of Universal Philosophy ; a work that 
has since then occupied a portion of his time, and 
which he is now preparing for publication, as " The 
Marriage of Philosophy and Faith" 

The statement here made is a logical argument based 
upon self-evident truths demonstrating that fact of Tri- 
Personality in God which has always been assumed 
dogmatically by the Church as the foundation of its 
theology; but which being, as there stated, poetical, 
and not rational, could not serve as a foundation for 
Philosophy, or even as a permanent basis for Theology. 
Although the foundation upon which this statement of 
Tri-Personality rests is partly hypothetical, as it is also 
self-evident^ this logical demonstration ought to be re- 
garded as sufficient, and the Law of Tri-Personality 
thus established be received without question as the 
only true ground of Philosophy, and the only rational 
foundation for Christian Theology. It is not, however, 



4 INTRODUCTION. 

upon this internal evidence alone that we intend to rest 
our statement. Being founded in Universal Laws of 
Being, which can be illustrated by all the phenomena 
of natural existence, it will also be demonstrated in 
other portions of our work by a process of analogical 
reasoning that will be still more satisfactory, as it will 
be more copious and more definite. It will also be de- 
monstrated by its result in the system of which this 
statement constitutes the foundation ; a system that 
will realize for the first time Philosophy as " the science 
of things Divine and of things Human," including 
Psychology, Theology^ and Ontology, made one as 
Body, Soul, and Spirit. 

This statement is published in advance of the work 
for several reasons, besides the urgent request of friends 
who have been interested in the progress of our work. 
First, the writer wishes to establish the laiv of Tri- 
Personality in connection with the fact of Tri-Person- 
ality in God, as they are here stated, upon internal 
ontological evidence alone ; so that he may have a 
right to use these as a foundation for the psychological 
and theological theories which, together with other 
facts now generally recognized, are to be used in illus- 
trating and more completely demonstrating this Law 
and this Fact, so that it may not be said that the writer 
has begged a single question, or assumed any other hy- 
pothesis than the original one contained in this state- 
ment. He therefore challenges the whole world to 
controvert either the premises or the conclusions here 
stated, feeling confident that no valid argument can 
be brought against them ; external authority being of 
courso out of the question. He will thus be doubly 



INTRODUCTION. 

armed ; because, as the Law of Tri-Personality is the 
law according to which, or corresponding with which, 
all natural things are created ; the mass of external 
evidence that can be brought in support of this state- 
ment would be abundantly sufficient even if no other 
existed. 

Another reason for this publication is, that a demon- 
stration of Tri-Personality upon a rational or spiritual 
basis is particularly needed at the present time ; not 
only for the purpose of turning the mind from natural- 
ism and materialism, in which it is now immersed, but 
also for the purpose of redeeming Truth from the bond- 
age of a morbid sentimentalism under whose tyrannical 
sway it is now suffering a sort of martyrdom ; for, judg- 
ing from the effect that has been produced by it upon 
the mind of the writer, it is calculated to produce such 
a result. Such has been the increase of naturalism 
in this country, that the doctrine of Tri-Personality has 
been very extensively abandoned in the Church. So 
much so that it has been found impossible to obtain a 
verdict of heresy against a popular divine who -has 
openly declared it to be nothing but a poetic fiction made 
necessary by human imperfection. Now as all the theo- 
logical doctrines of the Church are dependent for sup- 
port upon this fact of Tri-Personality in God, or rather 
upon her statement of this fact, its subversion must of 
course inevitably lead to their overthrow. It would 
therefore seem that a rational demonstration of this fact, 
heretofore dependent upon sentimental recognition, 
ought to be acceptable to the Church as presenting a 
barrier against the tide of heresy that is now setting so 
strongly against it. Not that ive imagine this difficulty 



6 INTRODUCTION. 

to be so serious as it undoubtedly appears to them, be- 
cause we regard these doctrines as natural substitutes for 
spiritual truth that are destined in the natural course of 
things to decay and death, that they may experience a 
resurrection to spiritual life in a rational form ; and 
thus, that, although the Church and the doctrines of the 
Church must always remain, when the religious senti- 
ment in individuals is not sufficiently strong to compel 
subjection to it without any other aid, these doctrines 
will, of course, be given up by them. 

There is another and a very different class of indi- 
viduals belonging to the ci no Church " party, and known 
as Transcendentalists, to which such a statement as the 
one here offered might be of much more importance. 
Although these individuals have long since passed be- 
yond the point when the doctrines of the Church could 
be received through sentimental recognition, — and al- 
though their position is removed as far as possible from 
all that relates to a spiritual order of thought and of 
experience, — still, the fact that they have exhausted 
all natural sources of instruction, makes it necessary 
that those of a spiritual character should be presented to 
them, and that the steps of these prodigal sons should 
be directed towards their father's house. Many of these 
individuals have arrived at the " great gulf " which sep- 
arates the natural from the spiritual ; and, although no 
broad highway can be constructed across this gulf for 
the multitude of travellers through this vale of tears, 
for these individuals it has become imperative that some 
bridge should be provided that shall be competent, 
with the aid of faith, to enable them to "pass over " in 
security. Even now many are watching in darkness 



INTRODUCTION. / 

upon this perilous shore for the appearance of some 
star in the East to guide them on their way. Already 
they cry, " Watchman, what of the night ? Watchman, 
what of the night ? and the Watchman replieth : 
The morning cometh and also the night. If ye will 
inquire, inquire ye." 

As both the necessity and the possibility of obtaining an 
absolute ground for philosophy, or any other foundation 
for Theology than the one given to us in the Scriptures 
and taught by the Church, may be questioned ; we will, 
as an introduction to this statement, undertake to de- 
monstrate these two facts, and thus answer the two 
principal objections that will probably be urged against 
our system, and which, if true, would render the state- 
ment here made entirely unnecessary. 

Cicero has defined Philosophy to be u the Science of 
things Divine and of things Human ; " and this definition 
is undeniably correct, because the very nature of phi- 
losophy demands rationality, consistency, or oneness ; 
and, admitting a relationship to exist between the Divine 
and the Human, philosophy cannot be realized without 
a foundation in absolute law, that will include and 
govern both the Divine and the Human subject. It 
therefore becomes evident that no philosophy can be 
true, and so can neither be permanent or extensively 
useful ; that is not universal in its character, scientific 
in its form, and founded in absolute law ; or in those 
universal laws of being in which God exists and through 
which he manifests himself; so that these laws shall 
govern all its departments and unite them in one gen- 
eral system. This fact seems to have been very well 
understood by the ancients, it being undeniably ap- 



8 INTRODUCTION. 

parent that all the fathers of philosophy have attempted 
in their systems to obtain a foundation in Absolute 
Law. They failed of course in these attempts, because, 
being Pagan, and thus confined to conceptions of the 
absolute taken from a natural or Unitarian point of view, 
their systems were necessarily characterized as natural, 
and so were discordant, uncertain, and unsafe in appli- 
cation, and exceedingly limited in use. As all subse- 
quent systems of philosophy have been constructed either 
out of materials furnished by these philosophical giants 
of old, — upon theoretical abstractions, — or upon gen- 
eralizations of partial natural experiences, — these, too, 
have failed to realize a universal form of philosophy 
founded upon the cognition of absolute law. Still, it 
must be evident that this has always been the aim of 
philosophy, and is essential to its permanency and to 
its use. 

Mr. Field, an English writer of some celebrity, and 
the author of quite a remarkable work upon the subject 
of colors, has offered " a Synopsis of Universal Philoso- 
phy" founded upon the fact, that the whole creation, 
including, of course, the human soul as its head, is 
bound together in one vast chain of relationship, which 
is analogical both in its form and in its function, or use. 
He says, " As there is nothing known that cannot be 
resolved into correlative elements, all knowledge con- 
sists of relations, and the absolute and the privitive, 
as extremes, are equally excluded from the sphere of 
knowledge or philosophy. We hold, therefore, that the 
universe is, to human cognizance, a universe of relations 
or analogy, and that all true analogy springs from uni- 
versal relation ; — that the primary relations of things 



INTRODUCTION. 'J 

are invariable and eternal, whence all knowledge is 
systematic and constant, inasmuch as it partakes of 
these universal relations or first principles ; — and, 
therefore, that all certainty is certainty of relation only, 
and not absolute, for of the absolute we have only indi- 
cation, but not knowledge, or comprehension." 

Now this is very well so far as it recognizes an 
important fact in the phenomena of existence, which 
is that of universal relationship. But Mr. Field has 
committed a capital error that is fatal to his theory in 
excluding the consideration of absolute Being, which is 
the basis of this relationship, — and in supposing that a 
science of relations could be constructed by generalizing 
the facts of observation and experience, and in tracing the 
relationships of use in the phenomena of nature. As nature 
is not harmonious, but contains an element of opposition, 
and so of discord, which is the rock upon which all other 
systems have foundered, a universal system of philoso- 
phy could not possibly be produced by such a method. 
The study and classification of natural phenomena can- 
not help us to understand them, because the support of 
this chain and the keg by ivhich only it can be unlocked are 
to be found noivhere but in God. A knowledge of the 
relationship existing between the Absolute and the 
Phenomenal, or between the Spiritual and the Natural, 
is the very key to the whole mystery of life ; and this 
relationship cannot of course be discovered until we 
know what the Absolute, or the Spiritual, really is. 
As the ground of all natural phenomena, and of all 
natural law, is the Absolute, it must of course follow 
that it is only so far as we obtain some adequate con- 
ception of this absolute ground that we can obtain any 
2 



10 INTRODUCTION. 

principle of classification or of analysis that can lead 
us in the direction of truth. In other words, as God is 
the sole ground and cause of all existence, and as all 
things are for this reason created in his likeness, so 
that, to use the language of Scripture, "ihe invisible 
things of God from the creation of the World are clearly 
seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his 
eternal poiver and godhead" a correct conception of the 
modes of his existence and activity must of course be the 
only legitimate ground of philosophy. 

This may be illustrated by the fact that the religious 
instinct through which we obtain a recognition of the 
statements contained in the Scriptures and made by 
the Church of these identical spiritual facts, is the 
ruling power of the natural mind, and the highest 
point of natural contemplation ; so that even in the 
natural, Theology becomes the life of Philosophy. It 
is thus a well known fact that the philosophy of a 
people is always determined by their theology ; that is, 
by their conceptions of the nature of a first cause. In 
proportion as this theology is in harmony with the 
Spiritual, or representative of spiritual ideas, GOD is 
regarded as the ground of existence, and his nature is 
interrogated for an explanation of the phenomena of 
life ; and in proportion as this theology is natural, 
MATTER is regarded as the ground of existence, and 
the physical laws which govern its development are 
interrogated for an explanation of the phenomena of 
life. Hence the numerous material theories of modern 
times growing out of the natural unitarian tendency of 
the age. Even transcendentalism tends to sensualism, 
and etherialism tends to materialism, as the self-styled 



INTRODUCTION. 11 

spiritual philosophies of the present day show ; some of 
which have undertaken to trace back the human soul 
through animal and vegetable into a mineral substance, 
from which they assume that the soul became developed 
in accordance with the laws of physical growth. It 
is true that the religious instinct only determines 
the character of philosophy and can never furnish a 
foundation for any system, for the reason that it is not 
intellectual, but sentimental, and so of the nature of 
affection ; and thus, although it is able to recognize in 
an apprehensive manner things that are representative 
of spiritual ideas and relationships when these are 
presented to it, it is not competent to furnish any 
foundation even for a philosophic statement ; but is de- 
pendent upon natural experiences and natural thought 
for the statement and illustration of its ideas. These 
are of course discordant and ^/-philosophical, because 
Nature, being governed by the principle of diversity, 
can never be anything else. The Church, therefore, 
has never had any philosophy. It has never depended 
upon intellectual, but always upon sentimental recogni- 
tion ; and has never adopted the Spiritual Ideas which 
are embodied in its theological systems as the founda- 
tion for truth, or for philosophy, but have regarded 
these as a super structure of truth that was to be sup- 
ported by anything that seemed to answer the purpose. 
All the Pagan philosophies, even the Epicurean, were, 
therefore, made use of by the fathers of the Church, 
as I shall presently show, in defending and inculcating 
its peculiar views ; although these, being Unitarian, 
must be in substance opposite to Christianity. These 
facts are sufficient to show how much necessity there 



12 INTRODUCTION. 

is for some statement of absolute ontological truth that 
shall serve as a foundation both for Psychology and 
Theology, so that Philosophy, by embracing psycholog- 
ical, theological, and ontological truth as Body, Soul, 
and Spirit, shall furnish a universal form by which 
truth shall be redeemed from diversity and discord, and 
become harmoniously one as "the Science of things 
Divine and of things Human" That Philosophy demands 
an absolute basis, then, is not to be doubted. The only 
question to be settled is, has it here been realized ? 
This will be settled first, by the self-evident character of 
the foundation that will here be laid ; next by the 
analogical proof that will be furnished from every de- 
partment of knowledge ; and, lastly, by the results of 
its application in explaining the phenomena of reve- 
lation, of observation, and of the consciousness, and 
in realizing satisfactory systems of psychology and 
theology. 

The other objection to this system, that it pretends to 
offer a foundation for Christian Theology different from 
the one given to us in the Scriptures as interpreted by 
the Church, will probably be considered by the men of 
the Church as the most serious objection of the two. 
If the system should really pretend to offer anything as 
a foundation for theology, that is not contained in or sanc- 
tioned by the /Scriptures, it would indeed be a serious 
objection. Such, however, is not the fact, as the the- 
ology here to be presented will be in every particular 
supported by quotations from the Scriptures, and the 
corner-stone of our whole system may be found included 
in two quotations from Romans and Ecclesiasticus, giv- 
en at the commencement of our chapter upon the Laws 



INTRODUCTION. 13 

of Correspondence, although no one has probably ever 
before seen them in this light. Indeed our theology 
will be found to be essentially the same, or the same, in 
substance, as that of the Church, although as to its form, 
being internal, spiritual, and rational, instead of being 
external, natural, and discordant, it will be found in 
every respect different. Still these men of the Church 
may possibly object to it upon the ground that, as the 
theology of the Bible belongs to a spiritual order of 
thought that is opposite to a natural order, and is thus 
separated from and opposed to the natural understand- 
ing, no other evidence than the testimony of the Scrip- 
tures as interpreted by the Church can ever be obtained 
for it, the Bible being the only revelation of spiritual 
truth that can ever be made to mankind, and the 
Church being its only authorized interpreter ; for 
although the claim to a private interpretation of the 
Scriptures was necessarily set up by Protestantism to 
secure a separation from Romanism, no Church can 
tolerate a departure from its creed, or recognize any 
other interpreter of the Bible than itself. 

There could not, however, be any tiring more indefen- 
sible than a position like this, because it is an undeni- 
able philosophical fact that will be demonstrated in a 
thousand ways in the course of this work, that all exist- 
ence and all consciousness, as well as all belief, is a 
result produced by the union of external facts with 
internal principles ; this being demanded by a univer- 
sal law of being ; so that no revelation can possibly be 
made to the mind from ivithout except as it corresponds 
with a revelation made to it from zuithin. Admitting, as 
we do, not only that the Bible contains a revelation of 



14 INTRODUCTION. 

Divine Truth, but that it is a revelation of Divine 
Truth, even the letter of which is divinely inspired, — 
and this is more than most of those who belong to the 
Church would be willing to do, — the question comes 
up, Hoiv is this Divine Revelation to be communicated to 
the mind ? or, By ivhat principle of the mind is it to be 
interpreted ? For although the presentation and expo- 
sition of the Scriptures may be the first condition, they 
can never be the cause of their recognition and recep- 
tion, it being impossible that what is external to the 
mind, and must, therefore, be made known to it through 
sensation, should ever be anything more to it than 
suggestive, that something in the mind may be furnished 
with material for production and be excited to incarnate 
itself in form. There are two modes in which the 
spiritual truths contained in the Scriptures are recog- 
nized and appropriated by the mind. The first mode 
is by a natural sentimental recognition, as interpreted 
by individual natural experiences, and stated in the 
forms of the natural understanding. This recognition 
and statement are made possible because the Scriptures 
contain a natural letter that is correspondent to natural 
thought and natural experiences, while at the same 
time this natural letter is representative of spiritual 
ideas. The second mode in which Spiritual Truth is 
made known to the mind is by an intuition of the Laws 
of Being, by the application of which Christian The- 
ology is realized as a Science, and all natural as well as 
all spiritual phenomena are explained, and their true re- 
lationships disclosed to the mind : for although this in- 
tuition of absolute law could not be realized without the 
intervention of an external suggestive principle, which 



INTRODUCTION. 15 

is provided for us in the Scriptures, — being realized, all 
the spiritual phenomena of which the theology of the 
Church is only the discordant natural representative, 
must be at once reproduced by it, and the representative 
character of all natural things revealed. 

Now it is the first of these modes that has heretofore 
exclusively prevailed in the Church ; and this may be 
known because the beliefs of the Church are apprehen- 
sive, aifectional, and poetical, instead of being compre- 
hensive, rational, and philosophical, — because they do 
not recognize spiritual or absolute Laiv, but only take 
cognizance of spiritual Phenomena, — because they are 
connected with external natural thought and the most 
external natural experiences, — and because they are 
found in the greatest diversity and discord, while the 
spiritual must of course include Universality, Unity, 
and Harmony. If no other recognition of spiritual 
truth than this of the Church were possible, its pro- 
mulgation would be nothing but a mockery, because, as 
"spiritual things must be spiritually discerned? and thus 
can only be recognized by a spiritual faculty, this truth 
could never really be recognized, or received and appro- 
priated, by man, and so could be of no possible use to 
him, but, on the contrary, must seem to be a cruelly 
unnecessary source of unhappiness. It is therefore, 
that as the religious sentiment, upon which this recog- 
nition of the Church depends for its support, loses its 
influence over the mind, the dogmas of the Church are 
at once rejected as something abhorrent to its thought, 
and repugnant to its feeling, and come to be regarded 
as an incubus of superstition that it is the greatest 
relief to be rid of. 



16 INTRODUCTION. 

As this sentimental recognition, then, has failed to 
give to Theology that rationality, universality, perma- 
nency, and use, that a form of spiritual or absolute 
truth must evidently be calculated to afford, it must be 
evident that we are to look to some other source for the 
realization of a theology that, being founded in the 
intuition of absolute laiv, shall combine these requi- 
sites. That the realization of such a theology is now 
the great desideratum, cannot, we think, be questioned ; 
and to doubt the possibility of its accomplishment, 
would be the greatest impiety, madness, and folly. It 
is true that the Church, with all her diversities and 
discords, can never be dispensed with, because she per- 
forms a great preparatory service in providing materials 
in the natural, representative and suggestive of the 
spiritual, and out of which the spiritual itself must be 
born, so that she may be said to be the mother of Chris- 
tianity, But although it is through the Church, it is 
only by the overshadoiving of the Spirit, that this birth 
becomes possible. 

It is also true, as the Church affirms, that the 
Scriptures, being a record of spiritual truth, cannot be 
comprehended, or even recognized by the natural 
understanding, which is opposite or antagonistic ; and 
we therefore willingly admit that, so long as this under- 
standing is the only test of truth, and the only interpreter 
of the Scriptures, this interpretation should be left exclu- 
sively to those who have been fitted for such a task by 
a long and profound study of these records and of the 
traditions and decisions of the Church ; and that this 
recognition should be left exclusively to a sentimental 
apprehension that has no reference to human thought, 



INTRODUCTION. 17 

feeling, or ideas of consistency. It is therefore that 
the Church of Rome wisely discourages the reading of 
the Scriptures unaccompanied by her own interpreta- 
tions ; for in undertaking to rationalize, or to compre- 
hend, the Bible with no better light than that of the 
natural understanding, we shall certainly succeed in 
nothing but in destroying all its spiritual character, and 
in turning its waters of life into a deadly poison. It 
cannot be true, however, that man is always to be con- 
fined to this inferior kind of intellectual consciousness. 
It can be clearly shown that this is nothing but a 
reflection, or rather a refraction, from some higher 
source of intelligence that makes a part of his nature, 
and without which he could not possess even this, 
although no other evidence may have appeared of its 
existence than the humanitarian character that it has 
imparted to the lower powers of the mind. The com- 
mand given to man, in the Scriptures, that he should 
" Love God with his whole heart" is a perfect assurance 
of this fact ; for, were not man endowed with a capacity 
for knotting God, which must of course be a capacity 
for absolute knowledge, or for the cognition of absolute 
law, this command would be so great an absurdity as 
to be perfectly ludicrous. If man were not so endowed 
he certainly could never know anything of God, and so 
could never love him. All that man could ever love 
would be some image of his own creation ; and this he 
could not of course love with his whole heart, but only 
so far as he supposed it to minister to some selfish 
gratification. All this being as clearly demonstrable 
as any proposition in Euclid, I would not merely suggest 
as a possibility, but would affirm as a necessary fact, that, 
3 



18 INTRODUCTION. 

— besides a Natural Understanding, that is adapted to 
the comprehension of truths belonging to a natural order, 

— and besides a Sentimental Nature, that is adapted to 
a discordant apprehensive recognition, through sensible 
images and natural modes of thought and of experi- 
ence as various as the condition of the subject, of 
truths belonging to a spiritual order, — man has been 
endowed with Reason, or with a rational principle that 
may be designated as a Spiritual Understanding, — that 
this is adapted to the comprehension of truths belong- 
ing to a spiritual order, — and that these must be sus- 
ceptible of a rational, scientific, or truly philosophic 
statement, because it is only through such a statement 
that anything can be comprehended or really known, 
and because Spirituality and Rationality are insepar- 
able. This idea of a Spiritual Understanding through 
which man becomes competent to realize a true concep- 
tion of God, or of the modes of his existence and man- 
ifestation, and thus is able to attain to the knowledge 
of Absolute Law, is not by any means a vague idea in 
the mind of the writer, but one that has been developed 
into scientific thought. This spiritual nature of man, 
which consists of three principles, corresponding with 
Truth, Good, and Beauty, will be analyzed and de- 
scribed in the psychological portion of our work as 
THE REASON. It will there be shown how it is that 
this confers upon man humanity, gives to his under- 
standing the form of rationality, and to the will self- 
consciousness, and makes possible to him that sentimental 
recognition of spiritual phenomena which we designate 
as religious experience ; so that if he were deprived of 



INTRODUCTION. 19 

this source of absolute knowledge he could be nothing 
more than a higher kind of animal. 

Such being the effects that are produced even by the 
unconscious presence of this spiritual principle, when 
only manifesting itself remotely through lower natural 
mediums, we shall be able to form some idea of what 
its potency and power will be when its manifestations 
shall be direct, and furnish a medium for the communi- 
cation to the soul of that wisdom which is u the bright- 
ness of the everlasting light, the unspotted mirror of 
the power of God, and the image of his goodness. 
Being hut one, she can do all things : and remaining in 
herself she maketh all things new: and in all ages 
entering into holy souls, she maketh them friends of 
God, and prophets." * 

* Wisdom of Solomon. 



THE LAW 



F 



TRI-PERSONALITT 



PRELIMINARY STATEMENT. 



In constructing systems of philosophy it is custom- 
ary; as it is of course necessary, to commence with 
some conception of the Cause of existence from which a 
statement of the Laws of existence can be deduced or 
evolved ; it being manifestly impossible that we should 
be able to understand or to explain an Effect without 
first understanding something of the Cause by which it 
is produced ; and to call that Philosophy which is not 
founded upon a System of Laws, by which it is per- 
vaded, and made one, and to which all its statements 
are referable, would be manifestly absurd. It is there- 
fore that Philosophy has been defined to be " the Science 
of things Divine and of things Human ; " although no 
one has yet succeeded in obtaining such a conception of 
God, and in framing from this such a system of laws 
as shall include both the things which are Divine and 
the things which are Human : and thus it has not been 
possible that cither should have been understood, or that 



24 LAW OF TRI-PERSONALITY. 

Philosophy should have been realized as legitimate 
Science, or as a System of Absolute Truth. 

All philosophies heretofore constructed have been 
founded either upon the Law of Unity, the Law of 
Duality, or Diversity, or from an incongruous mixture 
and discordant application of these two opposite prin- 
ciples. No philosophy now known has succeeded in 
realizing the Marriage, or union as one, of these two 
principles or laws, because this union is possible only 
through the Law of Trinity, which has never yet been 
applied as a law in philosophy, or been stated as a pro- 
ductive philosophic principle. 

Three principles operating as one, and stated or in- 
cluded in the formula of Wisdom, Love, and Power, — 
or Intellect, Affection, and Will, — these being related 
as Body, Soul, and Spirit, — have often been recognized 
both as the cause and as the universal condition of exist- 
ence ; and have been very extensively adopted as a basis 
both for Theology and for Philosophy. As this may be 
seen to constitute the form of all things, both natural 
and spiritual, and so is to be regarded as the Law of 
Unity, or Individuality, we cannot help accepting this 
idea as a universal law of Being. 

We cannot, however, take this alone as a guide in our 
search after Truth, or as the foundation for any system, 
because it is simply a principle of generalization that 
excludes the possibility of analysis, — because it sup- 
poses a oneness, or a harmony of parts, that contradicts 



PRELIMINARY STATEMENT. 25 

all experience, so that nothing can be explained by it, — 
and because, as it must individualize the universe by 
reducing everything to a simple Infinite Personality 
in God, instead of explaining anything, it would lead to 
the dissipation or destruction of everything, by resolving 
everything either into Spirit or into Matter. By taking 
this idea for our guide, we should be led through all the 
devious mazes of Unitarianism, until, having exhausted 
all its expedients to obtain a foundation for our belief, 
or an explanation of our life, we should find that we 
had succeeded only in realizing Nihilism. 

Two principles existing in perfect antagonism, have 
sometimes been recognized both as the cause and as the 
universal condition of existence, and have also been 
adopted as the foundation both of Theology and Phi- 
losophy. As such an antagonism may be seen to exist 
universally in Nature, and is, indeed, generally acknowl- 
edged so to exist, — and as such an opposition supposes 
a similar opposition in the sources from which natural 
existence is derived, — we cannot but accept Dualism, 
also, as a universal law of Being. We cannot take 
this, however, as a guide, or as the foundation for any 
system, because, although the Law of Duality might 
enable us to account for many of the phenomena of 
natural life, it would not help us to explain them with 
any satisfaction. Should we take this as our point of 
departure, as a substitute for the Law of Unity, we 
should be led into a two-sided contemplation of truth 
4 



26 LAW OF TRI-PERSONALITY. 

that would be as adverse to the repose of Faith, as to 
the consistency of Philosophy. By substituting natural 
appearances for spiritual facts, we should produce as 
much confusion, diversity, and uncertainty in our philo- 
sophical conclusions, as in our religious belief; and by 
demanding the recognition of two independent spiritual 
principles existing in perpetual hostility, we should re- 
produce all the monstrosities of the grossest Heathen 
superstition. 

It would seem, then, that, although the laws of Unity 
and Duality, — upon one or the other of which, or 
upon the incongruous mixture of which, all philosophies 
have heretofore been founded, — are legitimate Laws of 
Being, and thus are loth to be in some way recognized ; 
it must be evident that neither of these can be sufficient 
as the foundation of a system capable of satisfying the 
Reason, of explaining the phenomena of life, or of serv- 
ing as the exponent of Spirituality or Christianity ; 
while the combination of them would be fatal to all 
consistency, and thus fatal to all true philosophy. We 
will, therefore, while adopting them both as elements in 
Truth, or as laws of the Reason, go one step further, 
and add to these another element, which is the Law of 
Trinity. By the application, or by the addition of this 
law, which will hereafter be stated and explained, we 
shall find that Unity and Duality, although perfectly 
opposite, will become completely reconciled, and by 
union with it constitute a living and productive principle 



PRELIMINARY STATEMENT. 27 

capable of furnishing a foundation that shall be ade- 
quate to the support of a universal system of Truth. 
We will take, then, for our point of departure, the Law 
of Unity, the Law of Duality, and the Law of Trinity, 
as a three-fold form of Absolute Truth, which we may 
designate as the Trinitarian Principle, or Law of Tri- 
Personality ; recognizing in these three elements the 
same relation of Body, Soul, and Spirit that has already 
been recognized in the elements composing the Law of 
Unity or Individuality, which are Wisdom, Love, and 
Power ; and the same necessity that Body and Soul 
should become one, in order that Spirit, as the highest 
personality, should be realized. We will first make a 
statement of these three Laws as scientific formulas, 
and make an application of these formulas in obtaining 
a conception of the three-fold form in which God exists 
as Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, three persons, but one 
God. We will next expand these into more definite 
thought by illustration, and apply them as principles 
of classification and analysis, in the explanation and 
comprehension of all things relating to the nature and 
destiny of the Soul ; in doing which we shall realize 
Philosophy in its absolute character as " the Science of 
things Divine and of things Human," including the 
elements of Psychology, Theology, and Ontology, made 
one as Body, Soul, and Spirit. 



28 LAW OF TRI-PERSONALITY. 



LAW OF UNITY. 

As the condition of Being, everything must exist as 
a simple Individuality, which becomes realized by the 
union of an intellectual and an affectional principle 
combined and operating as one, and therefore embrac- 
ing a three-fold function of Intellect, Affection, and 
Activity, — or Wisdom, Love, and Power, — as Body, 
Soul, and Spirit. 

LAW OF DUALITY. 

As the condition of Production, all things must exist 
in pairs, as Male and Female ; the first being character- 
ized as Intellectual, and the second as Affectional ; and 
also in pairs as Masculine and Feminine, the first being 
characterized as Internal, and the second as External ; 
which Dualities must originally exist under a double or 
complex law of affinity and antipathy, and so include 
the principles of mutual attraction and mutual opposition. 



LAW OF TRINITY. 

As the condition of Absolute Life, and thus of perma- 
nency, or perpetuity, all things must become one with 
Absolute Unity by the Marriage of Opposites produced 



PRELIMINARY STATEMENT. 29 

by the sacrifice of Individualism, or Self-ism ; and re- 
cognizing Infinite Wisdom and Infinite Love as the Life 
of all things, become a three-fold Personality existing 
in three several spheres of consciousness, made one as 
Body, Soul, and Spirit. 



UNITY 



THE LAW OF INDIVIDUALITY 



According to our statement of the Law of Unity, as 
the condition of Being, or of Existence, everything must 
exist as a simple Individuality ; which becomes realized 
by the union of an intellective with an affective prin- 
ciple combined and operating as one, and thus em- 
bracing a three-fold function of Intellect, Affection, 
and Activity, — or Wisdom, Love, and Power, — as 
Body, Soul, and Spirit. 

The first question, therefore, that arises is, how is this 
Idea, or this Law, to be applied in obtaining a concep- 
tion of God ? for this, as well as the laws of Duality 
and Trinity, if true, must be found to originate in the 
constitution of God, from whom all things are derived, 
and a correct conception of which constitution must be 
obtained, before we can commence the construction of 
any permanent system of truth. 



32 LAW OP TRI-PERSONALITY. 

If we apply this Law of Individuality to God, as a 
simple and not as a complex Being, we realize Unitari- 
anisin, or Pantheism ; which appears in three several 
aspects, according to the manner in which this law is 
applied. If we regard him as purely Spiritual, we 
realize the universe as a spiritual emanation, and regard 
all the appearances of Matter as deceptive, — as in the 
theory of Berkley. If we regard him as purely Ma- 
terial, we realize the Universe as a material development, 
and regard all the conceptions of Spiritual Existence as 
fallacious, — as in the Epicurean Philosophy. If we re- 
gard him as compounded of Spirit and Matter, which are 
originally one in essence, and related as Soul and Body, 
we realize the Universe as a creation by God, from and 
in Himself, or as God developing, or externalizing Him- 
self in the Universe, — as in the Ionic, Pythagorean, 
Stoic, and other systems. 

The last of these conceptions being the most con- 
genial with the complex nature of the human mind, 
has been most generally adopted as the foundation of 
Philosophy ; for although many systems have recog- 
nized a sort of dualism, or antagonism between Spirit 
and Matter, they have generally recognized Matter as 
originating in and emanating from an Infinite Spiritual 
source ; and have, probably for the sake of practicability, 
although at the expense of rationality, regarded its op- 
position or imperfection as occasioned by the greater or 
less distance which separates it from this source, towards 



LAW OF INDIVIDUALITY. 33 

which it is constantly progressing in its return. By far 
the greater number of systems, however, have adopted 
the more consistent and directly Unitarian theory ; and 
applied the Law of Unity to Spirit and Matter ; by which 
they become individualized, and all things are resolved 
into one sphere, as harmonious, or homogeneous, — 
Spirit being regarded as Active, — Matter as harmoni- 
ously Passive, — and their union as Productive. 

Now Spirit and Matter are so associated in our minds 
with the idea of antagonism, and the belief in Matter is 
so much more natural than a belief in Spirit, that there 
is a constant tendency in Pantheism to Materialism, and 
but for the influence of the Religious sentiment, this 
would be irresistible. It was, probably, the recognition 
of this fatal Atheistic tendency, which clings to every 
philosophy in which Matter is recognized, that led the 
pious Bishop Berkley to construct that remarkable argu- 
ment which demonstrates, from a spiritual point of view, 
the non-existence of a Material Universe ; a conclusion 
that is equally Pantheistic, and as much to be depre- 
cated, as that of the Materialist, or Atheist. It is thus 
that Unitarianism must always be destructive ; and end 
either in the deification of Matter and death of the 
Soul, or in the destruction of Matter and thus of all 
individuality in existence ; which will amount to the 
same thing. 

We cannot accept Unitarianism, then, because it is 
anti-philosophical, — anti-spiritual, — and anti-produc- 
5 



o4 LAW OF TRI-PERSONALITY. 

tive, or destructive. It is anti-philosophical, because, 
although all the forms of things, when considered in- 
dividually, will be found to correspond with this Law 
of Unity, — as the substance, the relations, and thus the 
manifestations of things are evidently governed by an 
opposite Laiu that is dualistic, the principle of Unitarian- 
ism is found to be utterly incompetent to explain the 
phenomena of life, or the great facts of existence. It is 
anti-spiritual, because it does not recognize the positive 
antagonism that exists between the natural and the 
spiritual, and the necessity for self-sacrifice ; which are 
the great ideas of Spirituality or Christianity. It is 
anti-productive, or destructive, because it demands the 
destruction either of Spirit or of Matter, without the 
union of which the universe cannot be made to subsist ; 
and because in opposing Spiritualism it must eventually 
destroy itself, or rather be destroyed by it. 

In order that we may obtain a clearer idea of the 
nature of Unitarianism, I will present a short analysis 
of this sect in Philosophy and the Church, and point 
out the tendency that it has to cause the destruction, or 
dissipation of all existence. That it must eventually 
lead to the destruction of the individual who refuses to 
abandon it, has been recognized in all Christian The- 
ology, and will be demonstrated in the System of 
Theology here to be given. 

Unitarianism, as its name denotes, is founded in the 
idea that everything emanates from, and is resolvable 



LAW OF INDIVIDUALITY. 35 

into, one essence, or substance, and is thus included in 
one sphere ; being opposite to the idea in which Trini- 
tarianism is founded, which is, that all things emanated 
from, and are resolvable into, two opposite essences, or 
substances, to one of which Heaven is the sphere or 
habitation, and to the other, Hell Unitarianism might, 
therefore, be defined to be the belief in one principle or 
substance ; and all the opinions peculiar to it may be 
seen to grow out of, and to be referable to, this particular 
belief. In its manifestation, however, although always 
essentially Pantheistic, as the above definition implies, it 
becomes divided, in accordance with the universal law 
of production just stated, into Idealism, or Pantheism, 
and Realism, or Naturalism, as this manifestation is In- 
tellectual or Affectional, having reference to Truth or to 
God ; while both become again divided as they partake 
of an internal or an external character. Thus we find 
that Pantheism, as the exponent of Truth, sometimes 
takes the form of Spiritualism, and attempts to refer 
everything to the operation of forces or laws which are 
modes of Infinite Activity, by which all existence be- 
comes dissipated, and all individuality destroyed ; and 
sometimes takes the form of Materialism, and attempts 
to resolve everything into a succession of physical phe- 
nomena, which become developed according to laws in- 
herent in material substance ; ascending in series from 
mineral to vegetable, from vegetable to animal, and 



36 LAW OF TRI-PERSONALTTV. 

from animal to human life, by which both Spirituality 
and Immortality are destroyed. 

Thus also we find that Naturalism, as the exponent 
of Good, sometimes takes the form of Transcendentalism, 
judging of everything by the motive, and demanding the 
internal development of the individual, by securing to 
him the free exercise of his affectional or passional 
nature, because this must lead him to the realization of 
Good in its highest form as an internal governing prin- 
ciple, — and sometimes takes the form of Moralism, judg- 
ing of everything by the appearance, and demanding an 
external government for the individual that shall be in 
accordance with some generally accepted standard of use 
or good. 

Although all Unitarian systems of thought, however, 
must be characterized either as Spiritual Pantheism, as 
Material Pantheism, as Transcendentalism, or as Moral- 
ism, — and although all these forms of Unitarianism are 
perfectly hostile or antagonistic, — they are seldom, if 
ever, found except in discordant combination. This is 
because the human mind, as a natural production, exists 
in diversity and discord both intellectually and affec- 
tionally/ and thus cannot be satisfied except in the 
recognition of things which are also in diversity and 
discord. It is thus kept in perpetual agitation and con- 
flict, and although Reason, as the spiritual principle in 
man, is continually demanding consistency, or repose for 
the mind, this can never be realized except by a 



LAW OF INDIVIDUALITY. 37 

universal philosophy founded upon absolute cognition, 
or by that final rest in God consequent upon its union 
with him in spiritual life, which is the Sabbath of the 
Soul. 

Pantheism is the most philosophical or rational aspect 
of Unitarianism, because, being the exponent of truth, 
its province is to discover and to establish natural laiv, 
and it is thus impressed with the necessity of theoretical 
consistency. Denying, as it must, the existence of evil 
as a positive principle, it regards all appearances of " evil 
as nothing but the imperfection of good, as shade or dark- 
ness is supposed to be the imperfection, or obstruction 
of light, being an incident of natural growth, and essential 
to the development and education of the soul. Thus 
one of their own poets has said, 



For out of woe, and out of crime, 
Draws the soul a lore sublime." 



And the same writer has asserted that the soul, whether 
in the brothel or on the gallows, is constantly ascending 
towards perfection. The necessity of human actions, is 
also a doctrine of Pantheism. It denies that freedom 
can ever exist for man because he must always be 
bounded by the ever revolving circle of nature, and 
included in an everlasting chain of causes and conse- 
quences. Looking, as it does, from a natural point of 
view, it cannot without a violation of consistency avoid 
coming to this conclusion. Much valuable truth, there- 



38 LAW OF TM-PERSONALITY. 

fore, is to be learned from it that cannot be derived 
from any other natural source ; for that everything is 
really good, because designed by an Infinite wisdom 
and love for the production of the greatest ultimate 
good to each individual, is a truth to which the Church 
has never attained ; and the idea of necessity is one that 
it has never been able to retain for any length of time, 
although it is so indispensable in the construction of all 
Christian as well as of all Pagan Theology. Although 
a necessary element in truth, however, it is well known 
that the tendency of Pantheism is Atheistic, and leads to 
the destruction of all existence, either by the dissipation 
of matter, and with this all individuality, or by the 
establishment of individuality and the dissipation of all 
spiritual life, and thus of all immortality. 

Naturalism is the most unphilosophical, or irrational 
aspect of Unitarianism, because, being the exponent of 
Good, its province is to discover and to establish natural 
use, which is external or phenomenal ; and the more 
external or superficial the mind becomes, the more dis- 
cordant it is. Both in its internal and its external 
aspects it is confined to the observation of natural phe- 
nomena, — accepts only those ideas which can be con- 
fined within natural forms of thought, — and believes 
only in what is apparent, supposing this to be the only 
reality. Both internalists and externalists, therefore, 
believe in a self-determining power of the will, that 
always decides it to this or to that action as it shall 



LAW OF INDIVIDUALITY. 39 

choose and because it chooses, and thus disclaim the opera- 
tion of motives ; this being a belief in that deceptive 
fact of the natural consciousness which is recognized 
by Lord Karnes and other philosophers as " the delusive 
sense of liberty." This is because the idea of Free-Will, 
or human free agency, is a fact of natural conscious- 
ness observable internally by the former, as well as an 
apparent fact of natural life observable externally by 
the latter. 

The two elenients contained in Naturalism, however, 
which are Transcendentalism and Moralism, are rela- 
tively consistent and inconsistent, because they are 
relatively internal and external ; and the internal is 
allied both to simplicity and rationality in the life, while 
the external is allied to duplicity and inconsistency, or 
discord. It will therefore be found that there is in 
many respects a perfect antagonism between these two 
exponents of natural good. While the former demands 
that the internal and the external shall become one, or 
that the external manifestation shall correspond with 
the internal life, the latter demands concealment for the 
one and a false appearance for the other. It is true 
that it is only for good, of which it is the highest expo- 
nent, that Transcendentalism demands consistency; 
because here, Good is elevated above Truth, which, 
therefore, is either sacrificed for it or kept in subjection 
to it. Theoretical consistency is thus regarded by 
Transcendentalists with the greatest contempt. It is 



40 LAW OF TRI-PERSONALITY. 

also true that an external or apparent consistency is 
demanded by Moralism, because it requires an external 
conformity to some arbitrary standard of good; but 
this does not affect the position here taken because the 
consistency of Transcendentalism is real, while that of 
Moralism is fictitious, and even in this, the opposition 
between these two elements of Naturalism is appa- 
rent. Let us attend for a moment to some of these 
differences. 

Transcendentalists, as internalists, relying upon an 
internal direction, become observers of the phenomena of 
the consciousness, which include the motives or causes of 
action ; while the Moralists, as externalists, relying up- 
on an external direction, become observers of the phe- 
nomena of life, which include the consequences of action. 
The first, although avoiding those metaphysical abstrac- 
tions to which the Pantheist is devoted as the Law of 
Truth, are quite as devoted in the search after and 
application of what they consider to be the Law of Good ; 
while the second, eschewing all principles, confine them- 
selves exclusively to practical results, and the application 
of external rules of conduct established by authority. 
The first, being impressed with the mistaken notions 
that the Law of Good should be supreme, and that the 
moral sense is in every one competent to furnish this 
Law, — not understanding that in the natural every thing- 
is relative and nothing positive, so that the law of good 
is brought into diversity and cannot possibly be made 



LAW OF INDIVIDUALITY. 41 

one, or rendered universally applicable ; — become 
strenuous for the application of those feelings and prin- 
ciples which govern their oivn conduct, and which they 
feel to be the law of right for themselves, to all the fluc- 
tuating and unequal conditions and circumstances of 
social life both by themselves and others ; not consider- 
ing that, if the Law of Good is the supreme principle, 
the female should also be supreme, and that they 
should, to be consistent, submit themselves to female 
rule. By thus insisting upon the universal application 
of these partial principles of use, without having any 
regard for the consequences of such application, they 
run into all kinds of fanaticism, and produce all kinds 
of mischief. 

The second, on the other hand, — although not deny- 
ing the capacity of the moral sense to perceive what is 
right, because this, as an apparent fact, is recognized by 
both, — being impressed with the idea that the Will is 
not sufficiently strong to compel obedience to this law of 
right, but that it is, in the masses, overcome by an oppo- 
site tendency, distrust and repudiate all independent 
individual action ; and, being governed by expediency, 
and regarding nothing but consequences, require the obe- 
dience of all to some established external authority that 
shall decide for all what is right. By thus insisting 
upon the suppression of all individual activity, — the 
realization of immediate and apparent external use, — 

and the establishment of some arbitrary external 
6 



42 LAW OF TRI-PERSONALITY. 

authority, — they debase the standard of morals, and 
throw an insuperable obstacle in the way of all progress 
and of all improvement. 

Again, the first deny that any tendency to evil exists 
in the nature of man, and assert that all abuses are the 
result of a false organization of society and an un- 
healthy condition of the public sentiment ; while the 
second admit that a tendency to evil as well as to good 
exists in the nature of man, and assert that the influ- 
ence of society, or of the public sentiment, is calculated, 
and is necessary, to check the one and to encourage the 
other. This is because the first derive their opinions 
from the observation of internal phenomena as presented 
to the consciousness, that will not readily acknowledge 
the presence of an evil motive, and because they are too 
consistent to admit the idea that a natural tendency to 
evil can exist in a being who is an emanation from God 
in whom it never existed ; — while the second derive 
their opinions from the observation of external phenom- 
ena which present the appearance of mingled good and 
evil, and from the fact that man appears to know the 
one, while, when unrestrained by the law or public 
opinion he practices the other. 

Moralists do not, of course, believe in the absolute 
antagonism between good and evil as recognized by the 
Church, or, indeed, entertain any speculations with 
regard to the abstract nature of these qualities. The 
measure of good is with them use, and its reward and 



LAW OF INDIVIDUALITY. 43 

consequence happiness ; while the measure of evil is 
with them abuse, and its punishment and consequence 
unhappiness ; while the regulation of this measure he- 
longs to the Church, to the laws, and to the public 
sentiment, which are generally harmonious. It is true 
that they appear to regard the moral sense as capable 
of furnishing the law of Good, and as constituting the 
Spiritual Principle in man; and regard evil as origin- 
ating in certain animal appetites and selfish propensi- 
ties which they suppose to be " the lusts of the flesh " 
alluded to in the Scriptures, the letter of which, so far 
as it can be made to harmonize with their peculiar 
views, they patronize, or adopt as an additional support ; 
while they suppose that the regeneration and salvation 
of the individual is effected by the subjection of these 
to the spiritual law of conscience through the operation 
of free-will. Now this, one would think, was sufficiently 
external. Even this, however, is more theoretical than 
practical, is more apparent than real, because they have 
never been able to define in what this moral nature con- 
sists, but take for granted that this and the prevailing 
public sentiment is one and the same thing ; while 
regeneration with them means culture, and salvation 
means an increase of happiness ; for salvation and dam- 
nation in the theological sense of these terms are regard- 
ed by them as the offspring of a horrible superstition. 
With regard to the nature of the reward and the punish- 
ment that is supposed by them to attend the observance 



44 LAW OF TRI-PERSONALITY. 

and the violation of these moral conditions, or this arbi- 
trary code of moral obligation, considerable diversity of 
opinion prevails among them. Some believe that pun- 
ishment is arbitrary, and is inflicted from ivithout as a 
penalty, — some that it is necessary, and is inflicted from 
tvithin as a discipline ; — and others believe that the soul 
is, by the condition of its nature, made subject to cer- 
tain moral laws that have been promulgated by God 
as a universal regulator to the thoughts, the feelings, 
and the actions of man, — laws which are as unerring 
in their operation in inflicting punishments and in con- 
ferring rewards as those which appear to us to govern 
the physical world. Hence, they conclude that it is of 
the greatest importance that every one should make 
himself acquainted with these moral laws by attending 
to instruction from the prescribed sources, because, as 
in physics, the unconscious violation of these laws 
through ignorance must be quite as fatal as the con- 
scious violation of them against knowledge. These 
diversities, however, are too numerous to mention, and 
the further enumeration of them here is unnecessary ; 
for as both Transcendentalism and Moralism belong to 
the sphere of life or of experience, they will both be 
carefully analyzed and described in making our state- 
ment of "the Laivs of Succession" as applied to the 
development of human nature. 

So long as man is confined to an external sphere of 
consciousness, the tendency of Naturalism to self-wor- 



LAW OF INDIVIDUALITY. 45 

ship and self-destruction does not distinctly appear, 
because he is at this time more or less under subjection 
to Society and to the Church, — acknowledges the va- 
lidity of some truths belonging to a spiritual order, — 
and thus inconsistently maintains opinions which are mu- 
tually destructive. But when he begins to be a reality 
by the realization of an internal sphere of conscious- 
ness, so that the individual himself can become manifest- 
ed, — when he demands consistency for his life, and 
the realization of his oivn highest ideas or conceptions 
of truth and of good, as the higher Laiv which should 
supersede all others and govern all others as well as 
himself ; — and finally, when he becomes a ivorshipper 
of natural perfection, or of the true and the good in the 
beautiful, — for to this point Unitarianism must neces- 
sarily come, — then the impious and suicidal tendency 
of Naturalism becomes apparent, as it stretches forth 
its hand to seize the sceptre of God ; for now, as it 
happened from the first coming of John to the first 
coming of Christ, as recorded by St. Matthew,* " the 7ci?ig- 
dom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by 
forced This must be apparent if we reflect. We have 
seen that Unitarianism rests upon the ground that God 
exists as a simple individuality, or as the one Infinite 
Life, — and that Nature is thus either an emanation from 
him, or a creation in him, it can make no difference 

* St. Matthew, 11 : 12. 



46 LAW OF TRI-PERSONALITY. 

which ; — for, should it, for an instant, admit the idea 
that the Universe was created out of something sepa- 
rate from God, the further admission must, to the ra- 
tional mind, inevitably folloiv, that this something is by 
necessity opposite, or opposed, to God ; and this would 
bring in at once the fact of positive or absolute evil exist- 
ing as the life of nature, and in its train all those peculiar 
doctrines of the Church which it has always been its 
great object to oppose and to overthrow. The idea that 
Nature is a part of God, being necessarily incidental to 
TJnitarianism, it follows, as a matter of course, that Uni- 
tarianism when it comes to be consistent, must embrace 
the worship of Nature as God, or the worship of God 
in Nature, which is the same thing, and thus must em- 
brace self-worship because man is a the Lord of Nature." 
We therefore find as a final result man setting up his 
claim to an infinite personality, and to an infinite scope to 
his activity unrestrained by any law whatever ; so that 
this is not a mere theory, but may be seen in actual 
manifestation, as I shall presently have occasion to 
show. 

It will be understood, of course, that we are consid- 
ering TJnitarianism from an abstract spiritual point of 
view, and not from a practical one. The full develop- 
ment of this principle, of which we have here given a 
slight sketch, but all for which we now have room, is 
indispensable to the progress or development of the 
soul, and no single phase of it could possibly be dis- 






LAW OF INDIVIDUALITY. 47 

pensed with. In a spiritual condition of the soul, how- 
ever, or after it has entered into a spiritual sphere of 
consciousness, a continuance of the self-worship and 
denial of Divine Truth which it includes, must inevit- 
ably lead to its destruction. It is therefore that the 
prophet Isaiah in denouncing from a spiritual position 
those who shall become guilty of this unpardonable sin 
says : — 

" For behold, the Lord will come with fire, and with 
his chariots like a whirlwind ; to render his anger with 
fury and his rebuke with flames of fire. For by fire 
and by his sword will the Lord plead with all flesh, and 
the slain of the Lord shall be many. They that sanc- 
tify themselves and purify themselves in the gardens 
behind one tree in the midst, eating swine's flesh, and 
the abomination, and the field mouse, shall be consumed 
together saith the Lord." 

" For the Lord will have mercy on Jacob, and will 
yet choose Israel and 'set them in their own land : and 
the stranger shall be joined with thee, and they will 
cleave to the house of Jacob. And it shall come to 
pass, that thou shall take up this proverb against the 
King of Babylon and say, How hath the oppressor 
ceased ! the golden city ceased ! Thy pomp is brought 
down to the grave, and the noise of thy viols : the 
worm is spread under thee, and the worms cover thee. 
For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend unto 
heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God. 



48 LAW OF TRI-PERS0NAL1TY. 

I will ascend above the height of the clouds : I will be 
like the most High. Yet thou shalt be brought down 
to Hell, to the sides of the pit." 

In stating the difference between the Unitarian and 
Trinitarian principles, — which is, that according to the 
first, everything emanates from and is resolvable into 
one essence, and is included in one sphere ; while accord- 
ing to the second, all things emanate from and are 
resolvable into two opposite essences, to one of which 
Heaven is the sphere, or habitation, and to the other 
Hell ; — we do not mean to intimate that the theology 
of the Church is founded upon, or is supported by, a 
Trinitarian Philosophy. No such philosophy has ever 
been recognized by the Church, and we may say that 
none is now known to exist that is deserving of that 
name ; although many philosophical works may be found 
which recognize the doctrine of the Trinity. It is this 
that gives to the writer his peculiar position in offer- 
ing this statement of a Universal Science or form of 
Universal Philosophy founded upon the Trinitarian 
principle. 

As the Church is an institution calculated for the 
wants of man as he exists in an external natural con- 
dition, in which he cannot of course be capable of 
absolute cognition, and so cannot be made to compre- 
hend spiritual truth ; the consequence is, that, while the 
truths that are committed to its charge by record and 
by tradition belong to a spiritual order, they are pre- 



LAW OF INDIVIDUALITY. 49 

sentecl to mankind clothed in symbolic forms which are 
adapted to external natural comprehension, and ad- 
dressed to the sentimental nature which can only feel or 
apprehend, and is dependent upon external natural 
thought and external natural experiences for a form or 
a statement through which these truths must he com- 
municated to the natural mind. By the necessity of 
its constitution, therefore, the Church is deprived of a 
rational basis in Philosophy, because the sentimental 
nature cannot recognize spiritual ideas except as they 
are translated into natural forms which are opposite to 
them while at the same time they represent them. 

No consistency, therefore, can belong to the state- 
ments of the Church ; and no philosophy is possible for 
it except that which is hostile to it. It is true that 
these statements have been supported by even an 
extraordinary display of logical potver, because this 
external mode of argumentation belongs particularly 
to the external sphere of the soul's experience ; but 
although these statements have always been supported 
by an abundance of reasoning, this reasoning has been 
deficient in Reason, because based upon premises that 
are absurd. This, however, is a necessity, and cannot 
possibly be avoided. We therefore find that the Pro- 
testant Church, so long as it retains its original horror 
of Unitarianism, invariably manifests a decided hostility 
to Philosophy. It is true that the Church of Rome is 
more tolerant of Philosophy than the Protestant Church, 
7 



50 LAW OF TRI-PEKSONALITY. 

for the reason that the element of good, or use, which 
is harmonious with Unitarianism, necessarily attracts a 
large share of its attention. But this Church is char- 
acterized above all others as dogmatic, and while it 
makes use of all philosophies so far as they can be 
made to support an argument in favor of her own 
dogmas, these philosophies have always been natural or 
Unitarian, and thus Pantheistic, because there has been 
no other. Thus Clemens Alexandrinus writes, " I do 
not call that Philosophy which either the Stoics, the 
Platonists, the Epicureans, or the Peripatetics, singly 
teach ; but whatever dogmas are found in each sect to 
be true, and conducive to the knowledge and practice 
of piety, and justice, these collected into one system, I call 
Philosophy." Indeed the Epicurean, which is a purely 
material philosophy, is the only Pagan system that did 
not meet with decided patrons among the fathers of the 
Church. The Platonic system, — as it recognized an 
antagonism between the rational principle and the 
passions and appetites, which favored the asceticism of 
the Church, and harmonized with its natural concep- 
tions of antagonism between the flesh and the spirit ; 
and as it appeared to recognize a principle of absolute 
evil, and was so far harmonious with Christianity, — was 
at one time the most popular. Augustine contended 
that Plato was a Christian philosopher ; and a union of 
Platonic and Christian doctrines was attempted by 
Justin Martyr, Athenagoras, and Clemens Alexandri- 



LAW OF INDIVIDUALITY. 51 

nus. Subsequently, the Stoic and Aristotelian became 
the favorite systems ; the latter of which was very gen- 
erally adopted by the Scholastics who flourished from 
the eleventh to the sixteenth centuries. All this is 
matter of historical record, and shows, not only that the 
Church was compelled to make use of Pagan philoso- 
phies because no other could be had, but that it could 
not have had any rational foundation for its beliefs, 
because these philosophies were Pagan and thus 
antagonistic to Christianity. 

A late Catholic writer while exposing the Pantheistic 
character of the Unitarian philosophies of the present 
day, has attempted to set up a distinction between 
these and the philosophy recognized by the Church 
that shall exonerate it from the same charge* In 
answer to the question, "Is not God all things, the 
Universe itself ? " he says, a Mediante the creative act, 
yes, otherwise no ; because, conceived simply as real, 
necessary, and eternal Being, ens reale et necessarium, he 
is not conceived as productive, and no universe is or can 
be asserted. The difference between Philosophy and 
Pantheism lies precisely in the creative act of God. 
Pantheism asserts that real being is, and there stops, 
and in doing so asserts God as real and necessary 
Being and nothing else. Philosophy goes a step far- 
ther, and asserts, Heal being is Creator, and in doing 

* See Brownson's Review, January, 1850. 



52 LAW OF TRI-PERSONALITY. 

so asserts the Universe ; for existences are nothing but 
the creative act of God in its terminus, as is asserted 
in asserting creation out of nothing. To say that God 
non mediante the creative act is the Universe, is not 
true, for then there is no universe ; to say that God 
mediante the creative act is all things, is the Universe, 
is true ; for then the Universe is not only asserted, but 
asserted in its true relation to God, as being only from 
him, by him, and in him, through the creative act bring- 
ing it, as our author would say, forth from potentiality 
into actuality. There is no possible bridge from God 
as real and necessary Being to existence, or from 
existence to him, but his creative act, and therefore 
we must either rest in Pantheism, or assert creation 
out of nothing." 

It is evidently a distinction without a difference that 
is here relied upon, and nothing but a logical quibble. 
The development of God in the Universe, which is here 
asserted by our reviewer in saying that it is "from him, 
by him, and in Mm" is the very essence of Pantheism ; 
for it supposes Spirit and Matter to be harmonious, or 
homogeneous, and to be the result of Infinite activity 
alone. This convenient mode of realizing a Finite Ma- 
terial Universe from an Infinite Spiritual source alone, 
merely by pronouncing the word causation, has before 
been tried by M. Cousin, and as we shall have occasion 
presently to notice this fact, nothing more need now be 
said. 






LAW OF INDIVIDUALITY. 53 

In applying the Law of Unity or Individuality to 
Spirit or Life, then, we realize God as an INFINITE 
PRINCIPLE, or as Infinite Wisdom and Infinite Love 
combined as one in Infinite Potency or Power. But 
as this, should we stop here, would confine him to a 
solitary existence, and preclude the possibility of any 
creation from him — because the Infinite does not in- 
clude the Finite, but is, in every respect, opposite to it, 
as we have seen in reflecting upon the Unitarian Prin- 
ciple — we are forced to the conclusion that, in the 
forms or modes of his existence, God is not simple but 
complex, and that this Infinite Principle of Life is only 
one element in his Being. By the application of the 
Law of Unity, then, we realize the first Element, or the 
first Person, in God, and also realize the particular rela- 
tion of this to the other elements of his existence as 
HOLY GHOST, or SPIRIT. To obtain a conception 
of the other elements contained in Him, and also to 
obtain a clearer conception of this by comparison with 
them, we must apply the Laws of Duality and Trinity, 
which, with that of Unity, constitute the Law of Tri- 
Personality taken as the foundation of our system. 



DUALITY, 



THE LAW OF PRODUCTION 



The idea of Dualism was recognized by many of the 
ancient philosophers ; although this was for the most 
part, and we may perhaps say always, merely a recog- 
nition and generalization of that representative dualism 
which is found to exist in Nature. Thus HERACLITUS 
maintained that u every poiver in Nature and in Spirit 
mast evolve an opposite as the sole means and condition of 
its manifestation" and that " all opposition includes a ten- 
dency to reunion" But this was not a recognition of 
positive, or absolute, opposition ; for it is not probable 
that Heraclitus admitted the supposition that Life must 
evolve its opposite Death, Truth its opposite Falsehood, 
or Good its opposite Evil ; and if he had it would not 
make it the less absurd. It was only the recognition 
of a natural fact, that opposites always attract and 
unite together in manifestation, and the recognition of 



56 LAW OF TRI-PERSONALITV. 

the precedence of the male principle; or the evolution 
of Love from Wisdom and their reunion in a three-fold 
principle of Individuality ; a fact which we see illustra- 
ted in the creation of the woman from the man, and in 
the evolution of the body of the infant from the head 
in the process of generation or development ; a fact of 
no particular importance, as the true relationship be- 
tween these principles is settled by the statement of 
the Law of Unity which establishes Individuality as a 
three-fold form of Body, Soul, and Spirit. 

According to Sharistan, an Arabian writer, a ZORO- 
ASTER affirmed light and darkness, Yezdan and 
Ahreman, to be two contrary principles, which were the 
origin of everything subsisting in the world ; the forms 
of nature being produced by the combination of these 
two principles ; but maintained that the existence of 
darkness is not to be referred to the one Supreme 
Deity, who is without companion or equal, but must be 
considered as the unavoidable consequence of his deter- 
mination to create the world, in which light can no 
more subsist without darkness, than a visible body can 
exist without its shadow." 

This, however, was a natural Unitarian, or Panthe- 
istic, dualism that was more poetical than philosophical, 
and only the incarnation of those opposite appearances 
of good and evil which are incident to a natural 
phenomenal existence ; for, according to Zoroaster, 
everything exists as an emanation from God. He says, 



LAW OF PRODUCTION. 57 

"Various orders of Spiritual Being, Gods, or Demons, 
have proceeded from the Deity which are more or less 
perfect as they are at a greater or less distance in the course 
of emanation from the eternal fountain of intelligence ; 
among which the Human Soul is a particle of Divine 
Light which will return to its source and partake of its 
immortality ; and Matter is the last or most distant ema- 
nation from the first source of Being, which, on account 
of its distance from the fountain of light, becomes 
opaque and inert, and while it remains in this state, is 
the cause of evil ; but being gradually refined, it will at 
length return to the fountain whence it flowed." 

The dualistic theory of PLATO was probably noth- 
ing more than the repetition in a new form of the old 
idea of Zoroaster. Both regarded the Soul of man as 
an emanation from God ; or, rather as a portion of Di- 
vine Substance ; and both regarded his Body as sugges- 
tive or productive of evil in consequence of its relation 
to material substance. Whether this material body de- 
rived its tendency to evil from its remoteness from the 
source of Light, or of Divine Life, from which it ema- 
nated, as taught by the former ; or from u an inherent 
refractory force" existing in material substance as an 
opposite to the Divine Life, as taught by the latter ; is 
a matter of slight importance. Zoroaster regarded the 
body as destined to be re-united to, or absorbed into, its 
original fountain, as well as the soul ; but Plato taught 
that the soul only was to be re-united to God, while the 
8 



58 LAW OF TRI-PERSONALITY. 

body, together with the passions and appetites, which he 
supposed to be connected with the material portion of the 
soul, were temporal or destructible in their nature, and 
were to be got rid of as soon as possible. 

Neither of these philosophers taught, or probably 
were able to realize the most distant conception of the 
resurrection of the body ; that is, its regeneration as a 
spiritual body ; because this is a Christian idea. They 
only taught its dissipation, or destruction. The principle 
of dualism as taught by Zoroaster was the most rational 
of the two, because he did not, like Plato, fall into the 
gross absurdity of regarding u God and Matter as two 
principles which are eternally opposite, not only differing in 
their essences, but having no common principle by which 
they can be united" — and at the same time, suppose 
CREATION under such circumstances to be possible, and 
teach that the body of man is MATERIAL and his Soul 
DIVINE. Even the facts of creation, and the co-opera- 
tion of body and soul in manifestation, contradict such 
a supposition, while Christianity of course rejects it be- 
cause founded in the idea of their union. 

An antagonistic dualism has also been recognized by 
modern philosophers in the ideas of Unity and Diversity. 
M. Cousin, the celebrated exponent of Eclecticism, and 
one of the leading philosophers of the day, has attempt- 
ed the reconciliation of these opposite ideas ; but, hav- 
ing based his argument upon a natural phenomenal 
ground, he has, of course, failed in this attempt. To 



LAW OF PRODUCTION. 59 

show how this dualism has been recognized by modern 
philosophers, and how M. Cousin has failed to accom- 
plish the solution of this great metaphysical problem, 
I will quote from his " History of Philosophy." He 
says, " Human reason, whatever may be the mode of 
its development, however it begin, whatever it consider, 
whether it stop at the observation of that nature which 
lies around us, or plunge into the depths of the interior 
world, conceives all things only under the dominion of 
two ideas. Reason neither does nor can develope itself 
but under these two conditions. This division is but a 
reflection, under a more limited aspect, of that at which 
I rest ; and you may represent it to yourself under the 
formula of unity and multiplicity, of substance and phe- 
nomena, of absolute cause and relative causes, of the 
perfect and the imperfect, of the finite and the infinite. 
Each of these has two terms ; one of them necessary, 
absolute, one, substantial, causal, perfect, infinite ; the 
other, imperfect, phenomenal, relative, multiple, finite. 
A correct analysis identifies all these first terms to- 
gether, and all these second terms together. It identi- 
fies immensity, eternity, absolute substance and absolute 
cause, perfection and unity, on the one hand ; and on 
the other, the multiple, the phenomenal, the relative, the 
limited, the finite, the bounded, the imperfect. We 
ought not to say, as is said by two great rival schools, 
that the human understanding begins either with Unity 
and the Infinite, or with the finite and the contingent, 



60 LAW OF TRI-PERSONALITY. 

or multiple. In the order of the acquisition of our 
knowledge, the one supposes the other. You cannot 
separate variety from unity, nor unity from variety ; 
neither substance from phenomenon, nor phenomenon 
from substance ; one is anterior to the other, but does 
not exist without the other ; they co-exist necessarily. 
But how do they co-exist ? What is the mystery of 
this co-existence ? Unity is anterior to multiplicity, 
how, then, can unity admit multiplicity ? Human 
thought is unable to admit one without the other ; but 
in real order, we have seen that one is anterior to the 
other ; how, then, is this movement from unity to variety 
made ? Here is the fundamental vice of ancient and 
modern theories ; here is the vice of the theory of Kant. 
It places unity on one side, and multiplicity on the 
other ; and establishes such an opposition between them 
that all passage from one to the other seems impossible. 
A higher analysis resolves this contradiction. 

We have identified all the first terms together and 
all the second terms together. And what are the first 
terms ? They are immensity, eternity, infinity, unity. 
We shall hereafter see how the school of Elis, placing 
itself at this point of view exclusively, at the summit of 
immensity, eternity, being in itself, and infinite sub- 
stance, defied all other schools to depart thence, and 
ever reach relative being, the finite, and multiplicity ; 
and mocked at those who admitted the existence of the 
world, which is only, after all, a great multiplicity. 



LAW OF PRODUCTION. 61 

The fundamental error of the school of Elis comes from 
this source, namely, that in all the first terms which we 
have enumerated, it forgot one which equals all the rest 
in certainty, and is entitled to the same authority as all 
the rest ; and that is the idea of Cause. Unity, or Sub- 
stance, being an absolute cause, cannot but pass into 
act, cannot but develope itself. Take away the category 
of Causality from the other categories, the superficial 
observer discovers no omission of any importance ; but 
you may now perceive its consequences. It destroys 
every possible conception of the creation of the world. 
But unity, in itself, as absolute cause, contains the 
power of becoming variety and difference." 

" What is the road that leads from God to the uni- 
verse ? It is — creation. And wnat is creation ? What 
is it — to create ? — not according to the hypothetical 
method, hut the method tve have followed — that method 
which always borrows from human consciousness that which, 
by a higher induction, it aftenvards applies to the Divine 
Essence. To create, is a thing which it is not difficult 
to conceive, for it is a thing which we do at every mo- 
ment ; in fact, we create whenever w r e perform a free 
action. We create a free action ; we create it, I say, 
for we do not refer it to any principle superior to our- 
selves ; we impute it to ourselves exclusively. It was 
not ; it begins to be by virtue of that causality which 
we possess. Thus, to cause is to create ; but with 
what? with nothing? Certainly not. Man does not 



62 LAW OF TRI-PERSONALITY. 

draw forth from nothingness the act which he has not 
yet done and is abont to do ; he draws it forth from the 
power which he has to do it, from himself. Here is the 
type of creation. The divine creation is the same in its 
nature. God, if he is a cause, can create ; and if he is 
an absolute cause, he cannot but create ; and in creat- 
ing the universe he does not draw it forth from nothing- 
ness, but from Himself." 

The reason why M. Cousin comes to a conclusion 
opposite to the other philosophers here alluded to is, 
that, while they contemplated the subject from an ab- 
stract philosophical ground, he contemplates it from a 
practical empirical ground. But, although he here 
claims to have abandoned a hypothetical method that is 
uncertain, for a practical method that is sure, because 
he reasons from certain facts of the consciousness ; he has 
evidently mistaken his own position both as to its na- 
ture and tendency. He, as well as they, reasons hypo- 
thetically because he assumes that the consciousness of 
freedom in the individual Will or personality of Man, is 
equivalent to a conception of the law of causation, and draws 
from this hypothetical premise his conclusion. The only 
difference between them, then, is that they reason legiti- 
mately while he reasons absurdly. Reversing the order 
of thought, he reasons from effect to cause, and not from 
cause to effect, and thus is led to mistake a natural 
phenomenon for a spiritual law. This is a double ab- 
surdity. It is absurd, in the first place, because we 



LAW OF PRODUCTION. 63 

can never understand a phenomenon until we have 
attained a perfect conception of the law which governs 
it. It is absurd, in the next place, because, as the nat- 
ural is both unconscious of, and opposite to, the spiritual, 
a natural phenomenon cannot even become suggestive of 
a spiritual law, but must contradict it. If Pantheism 
were true, and God and Nature were perfectly harmo- 
nious, or homogeneous, this would not be quite so bad, 
although it would still be absurd ; but as God and 
Nature are opposite, all conclusions drawn from such 
premises must be opposite to the truth. Even accord- 
ing to his own method, however, M. Cousin is inconsis- 
tent ; for, while assuming the false position that man is 
a spiritual or absolute cause, and thus is really a Creator, 
and admitting the fact that he can create only from that 
which he finds in himself, he uses these as premises 
from which to draw the conclusion that God creates the 
opposite of Himself. 

Another peculiarity of this writer is, that, being una- 
ble to rise above phenomenal appearances, he adopts 
the popular instead of the scientific definition of the 
principal terms upon which he undertakes to found his 
argument ; rendering these terms entirely unfit for any 
philosophical use. Thus, instead of obtaining a con- 
ception of the Finite Principle — in which is included 
the idea of Diversity, and from which material substance 
and all natural imperfection are derived — he substi- 
tutes the diversified forms of natural existence, which 



64 LAW OF TRI-PERSONALITY. 

have been redeemed from absolute diversity, and thus 
from finity, from chaos, or from death, by the operation 
of an Infinite Unity. Thus, instead of recognizing in 
the ideas of Infinite and Finite, — Unity and Diversity, 
— tivo opposite absolute principles, he sees in Diversity 
only the external of Unity, and supposes the Finite to be 
only the development of the Infinite, which would make 
Nature, or Creation, to be, not Natural, but Spiritual 
Seeing that Unity in diversity is the Law of natural life, 
and that imperfection is incidental to all the works of 
creation, he has been led to infer that the Infinite and 
Finite, that Unity and Diversity, are in their essence, or 
origin, one. M. Cousin has thus perpetrated the mon- 
strous absurdity which we have declined to charge 
against Heraclitus, and boldly asserted that an absolute 
Infinite Cause must produce from itself the opposite of 
itself. The most unfortunate position assumed by this 
writer, however, is that in which he professes to aban- 
don " the hypothetical method," and attempts to obtain 
a conception of creation from an infinite spiritual cause, 
by referring to the act of a finite natural phenomenon ; — 
to obtain a knowledge of the modes of existence and 
operation in God, by referring to the deceptive appearances 
presented to the natural consciousness of man. This alone 
would be sufficient to exclude M. Cousin from the 
pale of Philosophy, and give to him the character of a 
shallow empiric. 

We should not have dwelt so long upon theories so 



LAW OF PRODUCTION. 65 

superficial were it not that this writer is one of the 
latest and most popular of modern philosophizers, and 
may by some be supposed to have succeeded in this 
attempt to harmonize, and to account for the conjunc- 
tion of, those opposite principles which we find ex- 
pressed by the terms Infinite and Finite, Unity and 
Diversity, to accomplish which has always been the 
great desideratum in Philosophy. Having seen that 
this fundamental dualism in existence has always been 
fully recognized, and that the secret of their union and 
combined manifestation in creation has never yet been 
discovered, but has always been regarded as the great- 
est of mysteries, we will proceed to the application of 
the Laiv of Duality, as here stated, in obtaining a con- 
ception of these opposite elements, and preparing the 
mind for their union and reconciliation and the realiza- 
tion of God as Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, by the 
application of the Laiv of Trinity. 

According to our statement of the law of Duality, — 
As the condition of production, all things must exist in 
pairs as male and female, the first being characterized 
as intellectual and the second as affectional ; — and also 
in pairs as masculine and feminine, the first being char- 
acterized as internal and the second as external ; which 
dualities originally exist under a double and complex 
law of affinity and antipathy, and thus include the prin- 
ciples of mutual attraction and mutual opposition. 

In applying this law of Duality for the purpose of 
9 



66 LAW OF TRI-PERSONALITY. 

obtaining a conception of the nature of God without 
any reference to previous thought, the first question 
that would arise is this, — What are the most remote 
principles or ideas of which we have any conception 
that stand to each other in this compound relationship 
of necessary attraction yet positive opposition ? Now 
we find that the most remote or abstract ideas which 
we have of the essences or causes of things have always 
been expressed by the terms SPIRIT and MATTER ; 
and by matter we do not of course mean matter as it 
appears in the diversified forms of creation, but the 
material susceptibility, originally chaotic, that is recog- 
nized in philosophy. These ideas of Spirit and Matter, 
however, which have always been resorted to as a foun- 
dation for philosophy and theology, will be much better 
expressed by the terms INFINITE and FINITE, be- 
cause, although spirit and matter are referable to Infinite 
and Finite principles they do not comprehend these 
principles but are comprehended by them. As it is 
precisely to these that we are also directed by the 
recognition of the Infinite Life, or Spirit, as the first 
person in God, — because Finite is universally recog- 
nized as the opposite of Infinite, — w 7 e cannot but 
accept these terms and recognize these principles as 
the most remote causes from the union of which a con- 
ception of the second person in God is to be realized. 
We have only to determine the question, What are the 
attributes which belong to them ? Very little definite 



LAW OF PRODUCTION. (37 

thought has ever been connected with these ideas, so 
vast are they in their nature, so opposite are they to all 
our natural conceptions, and so faintly clo they present 
themselves to the consciousness. Although the terms 
Infinite and Finite have always been recognized by the 
best authorities as opposite, still, in defining the term 
Finite, nothing but a popular definition has been given 
that is applicable only to the phenomena of natural exist- 
ence, and is the same that is given to the term definite. 
Both these terms are used to express that which is 
visible, or is defined to us by being made perceptible, and 
both are defined to be " that ivhich is limited, or boundedr 
Now it is correct to use the term finite in its popular 
sense as applied to natural phenomena, or to that which 
is limited or bounded, for the reason that the natural is 
supported by, and representative of, the finite principle, 
and is thus opposite or opposed to God. But "that 
which is limited or bounded " is no definition of the 
term finite. It is not so, because the finite, abstractly 
considered, is neither limited nor bounded, — because, 
being absolutely, or really, opposite to the Infinite, it is 
a spiritual idea, and so cannot be described by, or in- 
cluded in, a natural term, — and because this definition 
does not include any internal attribute or active charac- 
teristic that can affect the character of anything to 
which it is applied ; so that it is a sort of negative 
description that is philosophically useless. In defining 
these terms we would, therefore, say, that the elements 



68 LAW OF TRI-PERSONALITY. 

of the INFINITE, according to the most general 
analysis, are, Unity, Universality, Life ; • and that the 
elements of the FINITE are Diversity, Partiality, 
Death, — the definite manifestations of the first being 
Truth, Good, Beauty, while those of the second are 
Falsehood, Evil, Deformity. That this is the rational or 
scientific sense of these terms we think will be demon- 
strated by the result of their application to philosophic 
use. In stating our hypothesis, however, we have of 
course a right to assume them to be so. 

All these conclusions are the necessary result of the 
first step taken by us. Having realized the conception 
of God as INFINITE SUBSTANCE, if we recognize 
in this substance the attributes of Universality and 
Individuality, or Unity, as applied to Truth, to Love, 
and to Life, — and no one can help doing this, — the 
conclusion must inevitably follow, in view of the fact of 
creation, that, as the condition of this creation, a sub- 
stance in everything opposite to Infinite must have 
existed and have possessed the capacity of becoming 
receptive and productive from this opposite Infinite 
Principle ; for it must be palpably evident to all who 
understand the meaning of the terms used to express 
these attributes of Infinite Existence, that if this had 
not been so, nothing but Infinite Substance could ever 
have existed ; because as unity, universality, and life, 
are essential to the idea of Infinite, diversity, partiality, 
imperfection, hate, and destruction, or death, are necessa- 



LAW OF PRODUCTION. 69 

rily excluded, and a natural creation, to which these are 
essential, and indeed production or creation of any kind, 
becomes impossible. There cannot be a more self-evi- 
dent fact than this, that an Infinite Principle cannot 
alone, or of itself, create, or be productive. According 
to the universally accepted meaning of this term, the 
idea of production from it involves a palpable contra- 
diction, absurdity, or impossibility. It is impossible, I 
repeat, because, according to this acceptation, the Infi- 
nite Principle, as LIFE ITSELF, including the essence 
and cause of all Truth, of all Good, and of all Beauty, 
existing in the union of WISDOM ITSELF with 
LOVE ITSELF, is understood to include unity and 
universality as elementary characteristics, and is thus 
opposite to the ideas of diversity, of partiality, of divisi- 
bility, and visibility, which we know are requisites in 
production. This being granted, it must be seen, be- 
cause it plainly follows as a necessary consequence, 
that a principle in everything the opposite of Infinite, and 
therefore existing as DEATH ITSELF, including the 
essence and cause of all Falsehood, of all Evil, and of 
all Deformity or Imperfection, must have existed as fur- 
nishing THE ONLY POSSIBLE MATERIAL FOR 
CREATION. We have perhaps dwelt longer upon 
this idea than is necessary ; but the writer wishes to 
invite particular attention to this statement, because 
the central principles upon which his whole system is 
founded will be seen to grow out of it ; and if its 



70 LAW OF TRI-PERS0NALIT7. 

necessity, however repulsive it may seem, should not 
be recognized, it would be useless to proceed any fur- 
ther in attempting to comprehend either the nature of 
Being, the spiritual ideas of Christianity, or the nature, 
relationships, and destination of the Human Soul. 

In applying the Law of Duality to absolute exist- 
ence, or absolute substance, then, we have demonstrated 
the necessity that two opposite spiritual or absolute 
principles, substances, or causes, must have existed as 
the condition of Creation. But although Dualism is 
the Law of Production, as this dualism supposes oppo- 
sition and not union, before any production could 
possibly take place two things become necessary. 
First, as these opposite Infinite and Finite substances 
belong to, or rather constitute, opposite spheres, one of 
Life, and the other of Death, so that neither could be con- 
scious of the other, the necessity arises that these should 
become combined in one consciousness, or in one individual ; 
because if it were otherwise, there could be no con- 
scious communication between them, and so no use 
made of that material substance which is an element 
in the Finite, and must furnish the material for, and 
constitute the body of, Existence. It next becomes 
necessary that, as the first condition of creation, a 
DIVINE SUBSTANCE should be formed from the 
union of these opposite spiritual substances in this 
individual, so that he should, by combining in himself 
the opposite poles of existence, Life and Death, — 



LAW OF PRODUCTION. 71 

Infinite and Finite, — Unity and Diversity, — Good 
and Evil, — as Soul and Body, or Substance and Form, 
so that the lower should be subjected to the higher 
principle for use, — realize the consciousness of all possible 
things, and thus constitute the Soul of the Universe 
as weU as the Soul of Deity. THE FATHER by 
whom all things are to be created would thus become 
separated from the Infinite Life or Spirit as a Living 
Principle constituting the second Person in the God- 
head. 

This union of absolute opposite principles is made 
possible in the fact of attraction recognized in our state- 
ment of the Law of Duality, an attraction that arises 
in the adaptation there is in Finite Substance to furnish 
to the Infinite, material for creation, and thus for a mu- 
tual realization, or expression. It also is made practi- 
cable by the combination of these opposite principles in 
one individual in whom the finite Love, — if such a 
term can be used to express the animating power of 
finite existence, which resists creation because it is the 
essence of death or destruction, — could be sacrificed. 
The necessity of this union as the condition of creation 
has already been demonstrated. It is a remarkable 
phenomenon that a fact so palpably necessary and self- 
evident should have so long been overlooked, especially 
as it has been represented in all created existences, and 
has been proclaimed in the most unequivocal manner in 
the Scriptures. It must be accounted for upon the 



72 LAW OF TRI-PERSONALITY. 

ground that the knowledge of this fact has not before 
been necessary, and so its recognition has not been per- 
mitted. If we take the following declarations found in 
Paul's Epistle to the Romans and in the Book of Eccle- 
siasticus in connection, we have a complete promulgation 
of the Law of Duality as it has here been stated, and 
a decided recognition of the union of opposite absolute 
principles in God here seen to be necessary. 

" For the invisible things of him from the foundation 
of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the 
things that are made, even his Eternal Power and God- 
head." " Good is set against Evil, and Life against 
Death. So is the godly against the sinner and the 
sinner against the godly. So look upon all the works 
of the most High, and there are two and two, one 
against the other." 

This, it will be seen, is a distinct recognition of a 
universal representative Dualism, including a double 
antagonism of principles corresponding precisely with 
the Law of Duality as here stated, and referring to an 
absolute dualism in God. Indeed words cannot well 
express a confirmation more complete. So far, how- 
ever, we have only shown the necessity for the union of 
these opposite absolute principles. By the application 
of this Law of Duality we have only realized their com- 
bination in one individual, so that their union and the 
realization of a Divine Substance, has become a possi- 
bility. It must be evident, that, in consequence of this 



LAW OF PRODUCTION. 73 

meeting of opposite spiritual principles or forces in one 
individual, there must have resulted an absolute oppo- 
sition in him as of death to life, — a dualism partaking 
of the characteristics of, and representing in definite 
forms, the Infinite and Finite principles from which 
they were derived. This individual must, therefore, 
have realized in himself an opposition of principles, 
both intellectually and affectionally, which, ivhile it con- 
stituted his freedom, must, so long as this opposition 
continued, have prevented any marriage in him, and thus 
have prevented the realization, or formation of that 
Divine Substance upon which creation depended, so 
that no production from him would have been possible. 
It will therefore be seen that we have gone as far as the 
Law of Duality will carry us in realizing a conception 
of the nature of God, and that we are thus led to the 
consideration of the third division of our subject, which 
is the application of the Law of Trinity. 



10 



TRINITY, 



THE LAW OF LIFE 



The idea of Trinity has never been stated as a phi- 
losophic formula, or applied as a law of Life. It is only 
found in the Scriptures, — where it is taught, or at least 
suggested, as a form of existence in God, — and in the 
Church, which was instituted as the interpreter of these 
Divine records according to natural forms of thought 
and modes of conception to those who are confined to 
an external natural sphere of consciousness. Here, 
therefore, it appears as a theological dogma only, which 
is totally unfit for any philosophic use. A three-fold 
personality in God, as Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, is 
here assumed as a theological fact ; but the particular 
relationship subsisting between these persons has never, 
in the Church, been considered as a subject for thought, 
but only the relationship that exists between these 
several persons and the Human Soul, which was created 



76 LAW OF TRI-PERSONALITY. 

after their image. Thus the Father has been invested 
with the character of Creator ■, Preserver, and Governor ; 
— the Son, with the character of Redeemer, — and the 
Holy Ghost with the character of Sanctifier. It has 
been assumed that the first man, having committed 
an infinite offence by disobeying the command of his 
Creator, had become liable, — and with him the whole 
human race descending from him, — to the infliction of 
an infinite punishment ; this being a state of everlasting 
misery and woe expressed as an eternity of torment in 
Hell. That, in this state of affairs, the Son, being 
excited by compassion for the miserable condition and 
prospects of Humanity, was induced to assume this load 
of guilt with which Humanity was burthened, and to 
pay the penalty which was demanded of them by the 
Father ; and that this he did by becoming incarnated 
in a human form, and voluntarily yielding up his life 
upon the Cross. It has further been assumed, that, in 
consequence of this sacrifice by the Son, the human 
race has been relieved from all imputation of the 
original sin of the first man, so that it has become 
possible for us to receive the sanctifying influence of 
the Holy Ghost, — to become reconciled to God through 
the merits of Christ, — and to become inheritors of 
eternal happiness with Him. That, being free, man 
has still the power to receive or to reject this holy 
influence which is continually soliciting for admission 
into his heart. That, if within the period of his natu- 



LAW OF LIFE. 77 

ral life, which is by them limited to this atmosphere, he 
consents to receive it, he is saved ; but should he " die 
and make no sign" he is deprived of the benefit of 
Christ's sacrifice, and suffers the penalty originally 
denounced against the disobedient. What constitutes 
the sign of grace and deliverance, is, of course, the 
great topic of dispute ; but this is always some par- 
ticular form of belief, or of practice, which is varied 
in each particular denomination or portion of the 
Church. 

Although all the doctrines of each one of these 
particular denominations of Christianity are founded in 
this conception of the Tri-Personality of God, — or, 
rather, upon this conception of the modes in which these 
persons manifest themselves in relation to the human 
race, — which gives to them their designation of Trin- 
itarian ; this conception does not come within the 
sphere of Rationality, or even of Morality, — is limited 
entirely to the sphere of Religion as a theological 
dogma, — and, being a natural form of thought in 
which diversity is a necessary element, degenerates into 
the worship of three distinct persons, and so into the 
worship of three gods, which never can be conceived 
as constituting one. 

Such being the imperfection of these statements of 
Trinity as a theological dogma, it is not surprising that, 
as the religious sentiment upon which it is dependent 
for its support loses its predominance by the increased 



78 LAW OF TRI-PERSONALITY. 

demand for rationality, and for a morality that is more 
congenial with self-conscious right and sympathetic 
feeling, than with a blind obedience to law, — there 
should be found a prevailing disposition to evade such 
absurdities by the introduction of some substitute. 

The idea of Tri-Unity, which has already been 
described in treating of Unity as the Law of Individ- 
uality, has sometimes been set up as a substitute for 
that of Trinity by the enemies of that which is repre- 
sentative of spiritualism in the Church ; not with the 
idea of founding upon it any theological system, for 
which it is entirely unfit, but for the purpose of 
accounting, or seeming to account, for a doctrine so 
extensively recognized in the Church ; and always, 
probably, with the intention of subverting the original 
doctrine, and with it the peculiar dogmas which have 
been founded upon it. 

This idea of Tri-Unity, however, is not even the 
representative of any spiritual idea, but is only the 
partial recognition of a natural phenomenon, or of a 
natural law which may be found manifested in an 
infinite variety of forms. Although generally stated as 
Wisdom, Love, and Power, corresponding with the 
three most general divisions of the consciousness, which 
includes an Intellectual, an Affectional, and an Active 
principle; it has also been stated, — probably for the 
sake of novelty, — as " the Jcnower, the known, and the 
act of hioiving ; " — corresponding with the three most 



LAW OF LIFE. 79 

general divisions of the Intellect, which are Intuition, 
Sensation, and Reflection ; and with the three general 
divisions of the Understanding, which is made up of 
Perceptive, Receptive, and Reflective faculties ; — 
three elements which are found to co-exist in every 
thought, and even in the most simple perception of the 
intellect. 

Although these statements, corresponding with the 
Law of Unity, or Individuality, are more in harmony 
with rationality than the discordant statement of Trin- 
ityism which it would supersede ; it is a rationality 
belonging to a natural sphere of thought ; and instead 
of being, like that, the recognition of modes of exist- 
ence and manifestation in God, are only the recognition 
of modes of existence and manifestation in the human 
mind ; or rather of the most general aspect, or super- 
ficial individualization, of its forms and operations, 
which have no reference to, and cannot become sugges- 
tive of, any spiritual idea. Both in a theological and in 
a spiritual sense, therefore, they are not only entirely 
worthless, but are antagonistic or destructive. 

Individuals in endeavoring to trace the origin of the 
idea of Tri-Personality in the Church, — being impress- 
ed with the notion that there is not a sufficiency of 
evidence in the Scriptures to warrant such an idea, and 
overlooking or denying the fact that the Church has 
other grounds besides the Scriptures upon which this 
and other truths of Christianity rest, — such as the un- 



80 LAW (J¥ TiU-PERSONALITV. 

recorded traditions of the Church, and the sentimental 
intuitions and recognitions of its members, — are very 
apt to suppose, or at least find it very convenient to assert, 
that it is upon some of these natural forms of a three- 
fold individuality, that the Church has founded its doc- 
trine of Tri-Personality. Some, indeed, have gone so 
far as to insinuate that this doctrine is only a modifica- 
tion, or corruption, of an idea found in the Pagan my- 
thologies of India and of Scandinavia. 

If we look attentively, however, at any of these 
natural substitutes, it will be seen that, while they 
represent the form of this idea, they are opposed to its 
substance ; and that in all the philosophies and mythol- 
ogies of Pagan nations, however much the form of 
Deity may be multiplied, their Unitarianism will appear 
in the idea of emanation from, and resolvability into, 
some one central principle ; and their natural character 
will appear in the difference, or discordance, which 
attends the attributes and the manifestations of these 
Deities. 

Thus we read in the Laws of Menu, which form a 
part of the Hindoo Scriptures, " Let every Brahmin 
with fixed attention consider all nature, both visible 
and invisible, as existing in the Divine Spirit; for, 
when he contemplates the boundless universe existing 
in the Divine Spirit, he cannot give his heart to 
iniquity." 

" The Divine Spirit is the whole assemblage of Gods ; 



LAW OF LIFE. 81 

all worlds are seated in the Divine Spirit ; and the 
Divine Spirit, no doubt, produces the connected series 
of acts performed by embodied souls." 

66 But he must consider the Supreme Omnipresent 
Intelligence as the Sovereign Lord of them all ; a Spirit 
which can only be conceived by a mind slumbering ; 
but which he may imagine more subtil than the finest 
conceivable essence, and more bright than the purest 
gold. Him some adore as transcendently present in 
elementary tire ; others in Menu, lord of creatures ; 
some as more distinctly present in Indra, regent of the 
clouds and the atmosphere ; others in pure air ; others 
as the Most High Eternal Spirit," 

The idea of two natures, or principles, including a 
positive opposition the same in character as that between 
Heaven and Hell, being made to exist as one through 
Sacrifice, is an idea peculiar to Christianity, and cannot 
be found anywhere else ; except, as we have said, that 
all things of the Spirit must be unconsciously repre- 
sented in the phenomena of natural life which are in 
substance opposite to Spirit, but which from this simi- 
larity of form are liable to be mistaken for it. We 
might as well expect to discover life by poring into 
death, or to discover the laws of nature simply by gen- 
eralizing the phenomena of nature, as expect to discover 
in any Pagan or Unitarian statement a single form of 
absolute truth, or indeed to find anything except a 
perfect contradiction to this truth. These interrogations 
11 



82 LAW OF TRI-PERSONALITY. 

of nature are similar to those interrogations of the ora- 
cles of old, whose responses were sought with the under- 
standing that they would be deceptive, keeping the word 
of promise to the ear to break it to the hope. Nature is 
always so deceptive. It is only by obtaining a position 
above her that we can ever hope to understand her, or 
find in her anything more than a phantasmagoria of 
shadows which are deceptive, unsubstantial, and vain. 

The dogma of the Church, then, upon which such 
monstrous superstitions as those here described have 
been built, and which we are required by her to believe 
without the possibility of ever understanding, would 
seem to be the only legitimate representative that has 
ever been offered of the fact of Tri-Personality in God ; 
for, until Christianity has been expressed in the form of 
an exact philosophy, instead of being represented in the 
many-colored garment of a discordant theology, no sub- 
stitute can be found for this dogma that will not prove 
to be destructive to the Idea that it is made to repre- 
sent. 

Having considered the various substitutes which 
have been offered for the idea of Tri-Personality in 
God, we will proceed to the application of the Law of 
Trinity, as it has here been stated, for the purpose of 
realizing this idea not only as a theological dogma, but 
also as a philosophical fact, from the application of which 
a system of theology will result that shall be perfectly 
harmonious in itself, while at the same time it will em- 



LAW OF LIFE. 8 



o 



brace all the particular denominations of Christianity 
which have heretofore been so discordant. 

By the application of the Law of Unity, we have 
succeeded in realizing Infinite Life as the first Person- 
ality in God ; this being characterized as Spirit, and 
corresponding with the Holy Ghost, as recognized by 
the Church. 

By the application of the Law of Duality, we have 
succeeded in realizing, as the only condition under 
which creation could be possible, the combination in one 
Individual of this Infinite Life with an opposite Finite 
Principle ; and thus have realized the possibility of a 
Divine Substance that shall constitute the Soul of 
Deity as Father, or Creator, as well as the Soul of the 
Universe. 

In doing this, however, we have realized in this Indi- 
vidual an antagonistic dualism which must have pre- 
vented marriage in him, and so have prevented any 
production from him ; which renders imperative the 
application of some other law that shall produce a har- 
monious manifestation of Intellect, of Affection, and of 
Will, and also make him at-one with the Infinite Life, so 
that he may constitute a Living Principle capable of 
communicating this life to the material organizations of 
created existence. This we shall find is provided in 
the Law of Trinity. According to our statement of 
this law, — As the condition of Absolute Life, and thus 
of permanency, or perpetuity, all things must become one 



84 LAW OF TRI-PERSONALITY. 

with ahsolute unity hy the union of opposites produced 
by the sacrifice of individualism, or selfisin, and recog- 
nizing Infinite Wisdom and Infinite Love as the life of 
all things, become a three-fold personality existing in 
three several spheres of consciousness made one as 
Body, Soul, and Spirit. 

The principle of Individualism, or Selfism, the sacri- 
fice of which is demanded by the Law of Trinity, is 
the principle of SELF-LOVE. It is the affective prin- 
ciple, or motive power, that belongs to the Finite Prin- 
ciple, and so must accompany all that is born out of the 
Finite, as well as everything whose existence partakes 
of a finite character ; — and being opposite to the Uni- 
versal Love of the Infinite Life, is a destructive or anti- 
productive principle or force. This sacrifice is de- 
manded because a state of absolute dualism, or the con- 
sciousness of both infinite and finite existence, which 
must always precede the realization either of absolute 
life, or of absolute death, or damnation, necessarily 
includes the conscious presence of tivo opposite Loves. 
Now as one of these loves has an affinity for life, and 
production, and the other for death, and destruction ; 
and as two such loves cannot remain together, or be 
entertained together by any individual, any more than 
he can entertain both love and hate for the same thing 
at the same time, one of these loves must be sacrificed. 
In this case, then, in order that a Divine Substance 
should have been realized as Father, or Creator, a free 



LAW OF LIFE. 85 

choice must have been made by this Individual of an 
Infinite Love as Ms only animating and productive 
power ; the consequence of which would be, that the 
Self-Love that would reject the Infinite Wisdom, would 
destroy or expel the Infinite Love, and resist the 
Infinite Production, — would be sacrificed or expelled 
by Infinite Force. 

I would here pause, and urge upon the reader the 
great importance of obtaining a clear comprehension of 
the necessity for the meeting and conflict of these two 
opposite Loves before any individual can realize a state of 
absolute freedom, or be placed in a position which makes 
it possible that he should become one either with a 
Divine, or with an Infernal Principle : Also that he 
should see the necessity that, under such circumstances, 
either Self-Love or the Love of God should immediately 
be sacrificed in him ; because this recognition is essen- 
tial not only to the existence of the system here to be 
presented, but also to the existence of all that is vital 
in Christianity. It will hereafter be shown, not only 
that the fact that we are able to love many things which 
are vastly dissimilar, and even opposite in a natural 
sense, is no obstacle to the reception of this idea ; but 
that even the fact that the Love of God and Self-Love 
may both be made to operate at the same time through 
the same individual does not affect it ; there being neces- 
sarily contained in the unregenerated soul after the fact 
of election has taken place, and its redemption accom- 



86 LAW OF TRI-PERSONALITY. 

plished, as these terms will hereafter be explained, 
spheres of reception and mediums of manifestation 
which are not only dissimilar, but spiritually opposite ; 
for if this were not so, regeneration would be unneces- 
sary. This is because the soul, having become one 
with the spiritual, or with absolute life, exists in three 
several spheres of consciousness, and these cannot be 
made perfectly one as Body, Soul, and Spirit, until an 
entire regeneration of its natural organization shall have 
been effected ; and thus, although Self-Love may have 
been sacrificed at the centre of the will, it may still be 
found to operate at the circumference. This fact is taught 
most explicitly by St. Paul, and is made possible be- 
cause the Will, even in its most concentrated form, is 
not a simple power acting through a single organ, but 
is a complex power of the soul ; or rather, is the soul 
manifesting itself in a complex manner through a trinity 
of organs which belong to different regions of the mind 
and spheres of thought and affection, constituting man 
a three-fold personality corresponding with the three- 
fold personality of God. 

In returning to our subject we find that by the union 
in one Individual of Infinite and Finite Substance, 
which constitute the opposite poles of existence, and 
the sacrifice in the individual, tvhere it first comes in con- 
scious contact ivith its opposite, of that finite or partial 
love which is the essence, fountain, and source of self- 
loye — selfishness — or self-ism, — we have realized 



LAW OF LIFE. 87 

a Divine Substance as Father or Creator, in whom two 
opposite natures have been made one, and a unity of 
Life, of Love, and thus of Will, realized, by which that 
which constitutes Body has become subject to the Soul 
for use • and in whom, therefore, all the possibilities of 
creation must have been realized as a Divine Idea. 

We are, therefore, in some measure made to compre- 
prehend the position and relationship of this Divine 
Person as the Soul of Deity, and the substance or sus- 
taining power of the Created Universe. We cannot, 
however, stop here, because our statement of the Law 
of Trinity demands a realization of consciousness in 
three spheres made one, as Body, Soul, and Spirit, 
while we have as yet realized only the Spirit and the 
Soul. An external principle proceeding from the Father, 
and thus designated as the Son, is therefore now de- 
manded. 

The evolution of the body from the head, which is 
relatively soul, in the process of generation, to which I 
have already alluded, and the order of development in 
the human soul, as this will hereafter be described, are 
natural representatives of this great spiritual fact ; but 
had not this fact been first realized in God, as the ope- 
ration of a Law of Being, it could never have been repre- 
sented in nature. As the production from an internal 
sphere of absolute existence of an external sphere cor- 
responding to it as body to soul, and the union of these 
through sacrifice with the Infinite Life, are demanded 



88 LAW OF TRI-PERSONALITY. 

by the Universal Laws which have here been stated, 
and which nothing can be found to contradict ; although 
the idea of creation was a necessary realization in the 
Father as Divine Substance, the fact of creation would 
not have been possible without a complete Trinity of 
Persons in the Godhead. These laws demand an ex- 
ternal principle, as Bod?/, in the SON, and an internal 
principle, as Sotil, in the FATHER, united as One 
through sacrifice with the Infinite Principle of Life, 
which is the HOLY GHOST. 

Up to this point we have not been obliged to depend 
for any support upon the statement of Universal Laws 
taken as the foundation of our system ; because we have 
been sustained by internal self-evident truths which are 
abundantly sufficient. Even now, we do not need this 
support, because the existence of the Son as a person 
distinct from the Father has always been recognized 
both by Unitarians and Trinitarians as a fact distinctly 
taught in the Scriptures. It is true that the former 
refuse to acknowledge in the Son the existence of those 
attributes which belong to him as a person in the 
Trinity ; but language must constitute a very poor 
medium for the expression of thought, if the quotations 
here introduced from the Scriptures to illustrate the 
character of the Son do not, according to their own 
mode of interpretation, declare this character and rela- 
tionship to be precisely what it has here been repre- 
sented, and that in the most explicit and unmistakable 



LAW OF LIFE. 89 

manner. The mind must be severely ruled by the 
Fancy at the expense of the Reason, which, while re- 
cognizing the Scriptures as a true record or revelation, 
refuses to acknowledge the Divinity of the Son, or his 
reality as a mode of existence in God. Those, however, 
who have gone along with us so far, and have perceived 
the soundness of our conclusions, will probably find no 
difficulty in continuing to the end, or at least in admit- 
ting the necessity for this third person in God. 

The spiritual and natural elements which constituted 
this most external personality in God, or most external 
sphere of existence, as internal and external, must, of 
course, have been made one with Infinite Life, and thus 
have become living and productive as a spiritual Tri- 
Unity, by the same kind of sacrifice which produced 
the Divine Tri-Unity first realized. It was this that 
constituted him, as the Scriptures have declared, " the 
Lamb slain before the foundation of the world ; " for this 
declaration is not prospective, having reference to his 
subsequent incarnation and crucifixion ; but is a literal 
statement having reference to the formation of that Tri- 
Personality which alone made " the foundation of the 
world " possible. This is also taught in the following 
words, " For it pleased the Father that in him all full- 
ness should dwell ; and having made peace by the blood of 
the Cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself : 
by him I say, whether they be things in Earth, or things 
in Heaven'' For, although the " things in earth " relate 
12 



90 LAW OF Tftl-PERSONALITY. 

to the subsequent formation of a Divine-Human or 
Spiritual sphere by the incarnation of the Son, which 
will next be explained, and which was consummated by 
a sacrifice of which his visible crucifixion was only a 
type, — the " things in Heaven" which were also recon- 
ciled to God by the blood of the Cross, evidently relate 
to the formation of that heavenly sphere which followed 
the consummation of a Tri-Personality in God. This 
explains the meaning of these -words which came to 
Jesus when he prayed to the Father that he would 
glorify his Name, or glorify his Son. " Then came 
there a voice from Heaven, saying, I have both glorified 
it, and will glorify it again." This is evidently the 
recognition of a past glorification consequent upon the 
reconciliation to the Father of the " things in Heaven " 
by the sacrifice of " the Lamb of God" and also the 
recognition of a promised glorification consequent upon 
the reconciliation to him of the " things in earth " by the 
sacrifice of " the Son of Man." Thus Jesus afterwards 
said, " And now Father glorify thou me with thine own 
self; with the glory which I had with thee before the 
world was." 

This demand for a Tri-Personality in God by the Law 
of Trinity as it has here been stated and applied, may 
thus be seen to be legitimate, not only because every- 
thing in natural existence will be found to represent it, 
but because it is supported by the most explicit declara- 
tions of the Scriptures. In describing the creation of 



LAW OF LIFE. 91 

the world, God is here represented as saying, " Let us 
make man in our Image, after our Likeness." Now this 
evidently supposes, not only that the Father, or Creator, 
is here addressing a person distinct from himself, and is 
not speaking to himself, bnt also supposes that the Father, 
as we have here represented him, — a Divine Substance, 
containing in himself all the possibilities of Creation, or 
the Creation as a Divine Idea, — is addressing the Son 
as we have here represented him, and as the Scriptures 
repeatedly represent him, — that is, as the external em- 
bodiment or definite expression of that which exists in 
the Father; precisely as a Thought is the embodiment 
of an Idea. It will certainly so appear if we take in 
connection the following words of St. Paul : — 

" God, who at sundry times, and in divers manners, 
spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath 
in these last days spoken to us by his Son whom he hath 
appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the 
worlds ; who, being the brightness of his glory, and the 
express image of his person, when he had by himself 
purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the 
Majesty on high ; being made so much better than the 
angels, as he hath by inheritance obtained a more ex- 
cellent name than they. For unto which of the angels 
said he at any time, Thou art my Son, this day have I 
begotten thee ? Of the angels he saith, who maketh 
his angels spirits, and his ministers a flame of fire. 
But unto the Son he saith, Thy throne, God, is for 



92 LAW OF TRI-PERSONALITV. 

ever and ever : a sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre 
of thy kingdom." 

Although the statement of Tri-Personality in God 
that has here been made, may not now convey to the 
reader this idea as it exists in the mind of the writer ; 
should he follow in the path into which this statement 
will lead, and see how all the ideas which are but 
rudely and discordantly represented by the theology of 
the Churches are evolved from it, or produced as neces- 
sary consequences, and thus made perfectly harmonious ; 
its importance in an abstract point of view will be seen. 
And should he follow still further, — should he descend 
with us into the region of Psychology, and witness the 
illustrations of this idea presented by the various con- 
ditions and operations of the human mind which this 
statement has enabled us to realize, — it will become 
still clearer to his mind, and the importance in a prac- 
tical point of view of the statement here made of it, will 
be still more apparent ; for, as all things are created as 
images, or representatives, of this three-fold Personality 
in God, — or of his modes of existence and manifesta- 
tion under this form, — it not only furnishes a key that 
enables us to comprehend the great truths of Chris- 
tianity, but a principle of classification and analysis 
also, that will be useful in the investigation of all de- 
partments of knowledge, both scientific and philosoph- 
ical; while in the investigation of the nature of the 
human mind, it is indispensable to success. 



LAW OF LIFE. 93 

The origin and the nature of Evil, both positive and 
negative, — that is, both that which is absolute, or real, 
as well as that which is relative, or phenomenal, — will 
be accounted for and made comprehensible, and all the 
conflicting opinions which have prevailed upon this sub- 
ject be completely reconciled. 

There cannot be a more perplexing subject, or one 
upon which less satisfactory or more discordant conclu- 
sions have been entertained, than that of the Origin of 
Evil ; and this perplexity is increased by the fact, that 
all the various and opposite theories which have been 
constructed upon this subject are in some sense true, 
while in another sense they are opposite to the truth, so 
that the truth can really be obtained only by the means 
of a statement that will not only account for, but include 
and reconcile them all. 

For instance, it is both true and false that Evil 
originates in Gocl, — both true and false that it origin- 
ates in Man, — both true and false that it originates 
in and proceeds only from the Devil. It is both true 
and false that Evil is nothing but the result of natural 
imperfection and thus only nominal and not real, — only 
phenomenal and not absolute, being always calculated 
for and ending in the production of good, — as the 
Pantheists assert. It is also both true and false 
that Evil is a sin against an Infinite Being which 
must be visited by an infinite, eternal, punishment, 
and result in a constantly increasing degradation that 



94 LAW OF TRI-PERSONALITY. 

is further and further removed from Good, — as the 
Church teaches. 

Although these notions are all, in their turn, useful 
as sentimental experiences with which the understanding 
has nothing to do ; no approach towards the truth can 
be obtained by the demonstration of any one of them, 
or use gained by its application ; because a partial or 
one sided truth when applied universally, or in any 
degree out of its own sphere, will not direct, but mis- 
lead us ; and will, therefore, always be productive of 
false theories. It is only when we understand in ivhat 
sense it is that these notions are all true, and in what 
sense they are all false, that we can really know any- 
thing about them, or be safe in adopting them as 
general principles either for theoretical or practical use. 
The reconciliation of these opposite opinions is one of 
the incidental effects which will be found to result from 
the application of this statement of the Trinitarian 
Principle. 

Although the idea of Evil existing, or ever having 
existed, in the nature of God, is at the first view a 
repulsive one, it will here be shown to be inseparable 
from any true idea of God, of Spiritualism, or of 
Christianity. It is not, however, an idea peculiar to 
this system, but one that is in harmony with statements 
made by the founders of Protestantism, to whom we 
must look for spirituality in Idea, however natural and 
crude may have been their statements of it. It is also 



LAW OF LIFE. 95 

in harmony with the declarations of the Scriptures. 
We here find God, as the Father, or Creator, asserting 
himself thus. " I am Jehovah, and none else ; beside 
me there is no God : Forming Light and creating Dark- 
ness, — making Peace and creating Evil: I, Jehovah, 
am the Author of all these things." 

It is not, of course, possible that God should have 
been the author of Evil, or even have obtained any 
knowledge of its existence, had it not at some time 
been a fact of his own consciousness, or formed a part of 
his own experience. The fact that consciousness, or 
knowledge, is inseparable from identity, so that individ- 
uals can become cognizant of phenomena only so far as the 
principles or laivs which govern these phenomena are 
present in them, or are referable to some element of their 
nature, is covered by or included in that part of our 
statement of Duality as the Law of Production which 
demands the union of an external with an internal 
principle ; and will be most amply illustrated and 
demonstrated in the course of this work, as nothing 
can be produced or manifest itself except upon this 
condition. If this has not yet been received as an 
axiom in philosophy, it has been recognized as a fact of 
the consciousness. Those individuals, therefore, who 
have endeavored to be consistent in carrying out the 
Unitarian Idea into its more remote consequences, and 
to whom God is, of course, a simple and not a complex 
Being, — have been compelled to accept the conclusion 



96 LAW OF TRI-PERSONALITY. 

that, as it is not possible that God should ever have 
been conscious of Evil in himself, it is not possible 
that he should ever be conscious of its existence in 
others, and, therefore, that he can have no knowledge 
of the punishment which of itself it inflicts upon the 
offender. 

In the statement that has here been made, I have 
endeavored to demonstrate the necessity that God should 
exist as a Tri-Personality ; and I do not hesitate to 
affirm not only that this Tri-Personality must result 
from the application of the triple law of Being stated 
as the foundation of our system, but that it is a 
self-evident proposition which must arise in the simple 
recognition of the existence of God as an Infinite prin- 
ciple of Life. That the Tri-Personality here realized is 
a legitimate one that is distinguished from, and opposed 
to, the Unitarian idea of Tri-TJnity, — Trinity of Ele- 
ments, — or Trinity of Operations, — I think must be 
conceded. The fact that the Finite principle must 
always exist in its original integrity, — that it may 
operate as the animating principle, or furnish the 
motive power, to all natural life, which cannot exist 
without being supported by Self-ism, or Self-Love, 
originating partiality, hate, destructiveness, etc., which 
cannot flow into it, or come to it, from God ; — and also 
that it may furnish the source from which an Infernal 
sphere that we call Hell, can be sustained, precisely as 
the sphere of Heaven is sustained by the Infinite activ- 



LAW OF LIFE. 97 

ity, — precludes the idea of a simple individuality in 
God ; for it shows that the creating power of the uni- 
verse could not be a combination of Infinite and Finite 
force simply, but must have been produced out of the 
Finite by the Infinite, and exist as a separate power, 
person, or individuality. This would necessitate a 
Duality, while the application of the Law which de- 
mands an external as well as an internal principle as 
the condition of production, — which, besides being a 
self-evident proposition, can be proved to exist as a 
Universal Law, creation being formed as an image of 
this mode of existence in God, — necessitates that Tri- 
Personality which the Church has always with great 
consistency and pertinacity contended for as essential 
to her existence ; and rightly so because all the doc- 
trines which distinguish Christianity from Paganism 
have been constructed by her from a statement of this 
idea. 

As, according to the statement here made, the three 
persons who constitute God bear the relation to each 
other of Body, Soul, and Spirit, a perfect Unity, or 
substantial Individuality is the result ; and the charac- 
ter and relationship of these persons, as well as the 
intercourse between them, are rendered perfectly 
comprehensible by the human mind. They are made 
comprehensible, — first, because they correspond with 
universal laws, of which we may observe in nature a 
great variety of illustrations ; — again as they corres- 
13 



98 LAW OF TRI-PERSONALITY. 

pond with the three several spheres of individuality as 
manifested through the Will, where the higher elements 
descend and become more definitely expressed or 
manifested in the lower ; — and lastly as they are 
represented by the three several spheres of conscious- 
ness, or kinds of life, designated as external, internal, 
and spiritual, into which the soul successively enters. 
Each one of these possesses an individuality and a 
consciousness peculiarly its own, — perfectly distinct 
although perfectly analogous, — and calculated to act 
as one. They are thus perfectly representative of those 
three descending spheres of life which have here been 
represented as constituting the Tri-Personality in which 
God exists. The soul is so constituted not only because 
God said " Let us make man in our image," but because 
were it not so there could be no bond of union, or me- 
dium of communication, between man and the Infinite 
source of Life ; and thus no resurrection for him to a 
Spiritual Life which is one with it. 

As there seems to be an objection in some minds to 
the use of the word persons as applied to God, it may 
be well here to state that form is not necessarily 
included in, or connected with, the idea of Person. In 
our statement, it is made to apply only to the Son, in 
whom alone "dwelleth the fullness of the Godhead 
bodily" and who thus furnishes us with the only defi- 
nite idea of God ; but who is no more personal than 
the Infinite Spirit. By union with the Finite Principle 



LAW OF LIFE. 99 

this Spirit is made definite by incarnation in Divine 
Substance, who is the Father, or Creator; but this is 
not definite enough even for the apprehension of man, 
much less for his comprehension. By descending 
through the Father to the Son, it is made still more 
definite by incarnation in a spiritual substance, which is 
still more external ; and the possibility arises of its 
communication to Human Nature. Even then, how- 
ever, this communication could not have been made 
unless the Son had taken this nature upon, and made it 
one with, himself by his incarnation in flesh ; and pre- 
sented us with a definite object of worship in Jesus, 
the Son of God, and at the same time the Son of Man, 
as King, Prophet, and Priest, through whom alone we 
can approach towards God, — and who is the witness, 
exponent, or representative of God to man both in a 
natural and in a spiritual sphere of consciousness. It 
is therefore written, a This is he that came by Water, 
and Blood, even Jesus Christ ; not by Water alone, but 
by Water and Blood. And it is the Spirit which 
beareth witness because the Spirit is Truth. For there 
are three that bear record in Heaven, the Father, the 
Word, and the Holy Ghost : and these three are one. 
And there are three that bear witness in Earth, the 
Spirit, the Water, and the Blood : and these three 
agree in one." 

It must be at once seen that by " the Father, the 
Word, and the Holy Ghost," is here meant the Divine 



100 LAW OF TRI-PERSONALITY. 

Trinity or Tri-Personality in which God exists in an 
Infinite sphere of consciousness ; and that by "the 
Spirit, the Water, and the Blood," is meant a Spiritual 
Trinity or Tri-Personality in Christ as the representa- 
tive or witness of God, and through whom God exists 
in a Finite sphere of consciousness, constituting a Divine- 
Human or Spiritual sphere. This supplies a middle 
ground or mediating principle in which God and Man 
may meet in harmonious recognition ; and from which 
man can, by becoming receptive of the Spiritual, 
which is one with the Divine, be translated through 
regeneration from a Natural to a Spiritual existence ; 
and become united to God by becoming conscious of 
the same kind of life, and so capable of conscious 
communion with Him, and conscious direction from 
Him. 

With the three Personalities, or Spheres of Life, 
which constitute the Divine Trinity, and belong to an 
Infinite sphere of consciousness, therefore, we have noth- 
ing to do, except as we find them manifested in Christ ; 
because, a finite creature cannot become conscious from 
an infinite point of view. Our worship is not to be 
divided between three persons, but confined to one 
person. This person is " Emanuel" who is " Go d tvith 
us" and manifests, through one form, Three Divine Per- 
sons, or Personalities, which we call a Trinity of Father, 
Son, and Holy Ghost, — and which, by being brought 
down into a Spiritual or Divine-Human sphere, are 



LAW OF LIFE. 101 

made comprehensible to us. If we had not first ob- 
tained a statement of Tri-Personality, however, there 
could be no life or spiritual significance in any state- 
ment we should make of the Trinity as existing in 
Christ, the Emanuel, or God with us ; or any compre- 
hension of that Divine-Human sphere, to the contem- 
plation of which we are now led. As to the word 
person, we are not acquainted with any term that could 
well be substituted for this to express those Individual- 
izations into which the Godhead is evidently separable ; 
nor do we see any necessity for such substitution. 



TRINITY 



THE LAW OF SALVATION 



Having shown the necessity that God should exist 
as a Three-fold Personality as the condition of creation, 
I will now proceed to show the necessity that God 
should assume Human Nature, or become incarnated in 
Flesh, as the consequence of creation, and as the condition 
of Salvation to mankind. 

All things in Heaven having been reconciled to the 
Father by the sacrifice of the Son, so that the external 
was made one with the internal, a Divine Trinity 
realized, and a heavenly sphere established, — creation 
became possible ; and if God had determined that this 
creation should be simply natural, and so in every sense 
necessitated, — supposing such a creation possible, — this 
incarnation would not have been necessary, and indeed 
could not have taken place. It would not have been 
necessary, because the salvation of man by being made 



104 LAW OF TRI-PERSONALITY. 

at-one with God, — which was the object to be accom- 
plished by it, — would of course have been out of the 
question from the impossibility of his ever becoming 
conscious of or receptive from the Spiritual. It could 
not have taken place, because no union between Spirit- 
ual and Natural principles, and so no incarnation, could 
possibly have been effected, for the want of some con- 
necting link by which they could be united. 

For the same reasons, however, we may see that a 
merely natural creation would have been impossible ; 
and thus we learn, both from the Scriptures and from 
the known structure and functions of the human soul, 
— which as the head of creation must determine the 
condition of all that is relatively body, — that the crea- 
tion, — which constitutes the a things in earth " alluded 
to in the Trinitarian formula just quoted, — was de- 
signed by God to be a spiritual creation ; and thus to 
become reconciled to or made at-one with him, instead of 
existing separated from and unconsciously opposed to 
him. It is therefore that he said " Let us make man in 
our image, after our likeness." 

In consequence of this determination, and as the 
only means of accomplishing this design, man was 
created loth Natural and Spiritual. Besides his earthy 
natural existence, subject to the laws of growth, decay, 
and decomposition, which was necessary as a basis for 
his individuality ; man was endowed with the capacity 
for realizing a spiritual nature, of which this earthy 



LAW OF SALVATION. 105 

nature was representative or symbolic. There was im- 
planted in him, as seed, a spiritual principle which, after 
the lapse of time necessary for the growth of all his 
natural powers, should spring up within him, and bear 
to him the fruit of eternal life or of eternal death, as 
he should use or abuse the liberty that must then be 
entrusted to him as a spiritual being. In this way it 
was provided that a spiritual nature should become de- 
veloped in man which should serve as a medium for 
the realization of an order of experiences identical in 
character tuith the experiences of God, although infinitely 
removed in capacity, so that when this medium of 
communication with him should be opened in man, God 
could say, as we read in the Scriptures, a Behold, the 
man is become as one of as, to know Good and Evil." 
This spiritual experience must from its nature include 
a distinct and perfect recognition, or consciousness, of 
those Infinite and Finite forces which constitute the 
substance of Good and of Evil, — of Life and of Death, 
— an experience that is accompanied both by the 
capacity and the necessity of choosing between these 
opposite principles, so that a state of freedom may be 
realized, and a sacrifice of self-ism consummated in 
man that shall make him at-one with the Infinite Prin- 
ciple of Life, precisely as the Father and the Son were 
made one with it as the condition of Tri-Personality 
and of Creation ; for this we have seen, in our state- 
ment of the Law of Trinity, to be the universal Law of 
14 



106 LAW OF TKI-PERSONALITif. 

Spiritual Life. By this sacrifice man would be re- 
deemed, not only from the unconscious opposition to 
God which inheres in him as a natural production, — 
or as a creature produced by infinite force from a finite 
substance, possessing a finite character, and animated 
by a finite self-ism, or self-love ; — but also from a 
conscious opposition, resulting in condemnation or 
damnation, which would take place upon the rejection 
of Good and the acceptance of Evil as the future law 
of his being. I say, man by this sacrifice of the cross 
would be redeemed from death both in a natural and in 
a spiritual sense, and become at-one with or reconciled 
to God, — a partaker of his nature, — and a sharer in 
his glory and blessedness. The head of creation having 
become reconciled to God, all lower phenomena which 
constitute the tody of creation would become reconciled 
with him, because the condition of the body is entirely 
dependent upon that of the head, and takes from 
this its form and character, as we have already seen 
in illustrating the formation of a Tri-Personality in 
God. 

The possibility of such a capacity in man, and such a 
redemption for him, . as we have now described, is a 
great mystery that can never be perfectly comprehended. 
The facts, however, we can never be allowed to doubt, 
because, rationally considered, creation would otherwise 
have been impossible ; and because, if we deny this, we 
pronounce Christianity to be a delusion, or an imposture, 



LAW OF SALVATION. 107 

and virtually acknowledge that like brutes we live, and 
like brutes, also, we are to perish. 

Now the fact that man was created with this capacity, 
and for this end, necessitated the Incarnation. It became 
necessary, in order that man should realize the design 
of his creation, that the Son, as the most external sphere 
of existence, or form of personality in God, should, " in 
the fullness of time" — that is, after a human sphere 
had been completed, and human nature as a natural 
production had, in the progress of the ages, attained to 
its full and perfect development, — descend into this 
atmosphere in the form of a man. 

He must have been born into this atmosphere, because, 
as the experience of man must have a body, as well 
as a soul and a spirit, as the condition of a perfect or 
spiritual realization, — and as this, being the lowest 
atmosphere, corresponds with body, — here must be laid 
the foundation of all of which he can ever become 
conscious. 

He must have been born in the fullness of time, be- 
cause a Divine-Human sphere could not have been 
formed until a Human sphere, the development of which 
must occupy this full period of time, had been com- 
pleted and become fit for union with a Divine sphere. 
Human nature could not before this have attained 
to a complete development, and so could not have 
been prepared for regeneration into a form of Divine 
Humanity, which was the end of its creation, because 



108 LAW OF TRI-PERSONALITY. 

generation must precede regeneration, and that this is not 
instantaneous, but is the work of many ages, we shall 
prove both from the Scriptures, and from known 
phenomena in the history of human nature. 

St. Paul has therefore taught, u That was not first 
which is spiritual, but that which is natural ; and after- 
wards that which is spiritual. The first man is of the 
earth, earthy. The second man is the Lord from 
Heaven." If born previous to this, the human race, — 
not being prepared for his reception, and being consti- 
tuted as antagonistic, — could not have been affected 
by him except in being excited to oppose and destroy 
him ; so that his rejection, and the consequent destruc- 
tion of the soul, must inevitably have resulted ; a fact 
that was represented in the rejection of Christ by the 
Jews and the destruction of their temple and their 
nationality. If born after this, it would have been too 
late; because the soul would already have been de- 
stroyed by the finite force of which it must at this 
period become conscious. 

He must have been born in the form of a man, not 
only because this is the highest form of natural exist- 
ence, but because the object of the incarnation was to 
make Human Nature as body one with the Divine 
Nature as soul by its regeneration and glorification as 
Divine-Human ; so that a sphere of Absolute Existence 
might be realized from which man could be sustained 
in a spiritual consciousness intellectually, affectionally, 



LAW OF SALVATION. 109 

and actively. This could of course be accomplished 
only by the union of these two natures in one individual 
who would thus be both Divine and Human, — both 
God and Man, — constituting him a mediator or 
medium of communication between them. 

Three principal causes, then, seem to present them- 
selves to our consideration as necessitating the Incar- 
nation ; first, the formation of a Divine-Human sphere 
of life ; — second, the provision of experiences for man 
that should be suggestive of the Spiritual ; — and third, 
the provision of experiences in God of the imperfec- 
tions and evils incident to Human Nature. 

In the first place, the Incarnation was necessary as 
the means of providing for the formation of a Divine- 
Human sphere of life. It is to be premised that man 
is not an absolute principle of Life, or portion of Divine 
Substance, — as the Pagan philosophers taught, and as 
their Unitarian followers now believe, — but is only a 
creature, or material creation. That is, that he is simply 
an organ, receptacle, or medium, suited to the produc- 
tion of certain phenomena ; — first, of those which are 
natural, relative, and apparent, and afterwards, of those 
which are spiritual, absolute, and real. Consequently, 
that he is dependent for the sustenance and support of 
his being upon influx from spheres of absolute existence. 
Now so long as man remained natural, — which was 
until he had completed the development of all his nat- 
ural powers, — the incarnation was not necessary ; 



110 LAW OF TRI-PERSONALITY. 

because, like all other natural things, he could then be 
sustained by an infinite, and supported by a finite 
force, and this would make the continuation of his life 
possible. The reason is this. Although the soul could 
not become conscious of infinite and finite force without 
demanding the , sacrifice of one or of the other, which 
in either case would be fatal to it because both are 
necessary to its life ; — as the natural cannot become 
conscious of anything that is real or absolute, but only 
of what is apparent or phenomenal, it must remain 
perfectly unconscious of the operation of these absolute 
spiritual causes, both of which could, therefore, continue 
to act upon it in producing effects or appearances har- 
monious with and representative of themselves. It is 
this that constitutes the natural principle what it is 
represented in the Scriptures to be, — " the tree of the 
knowledge of good and evil in the midst of the garden." 
But when, instead of being a natural appearance, man 
should have become a spiritual reality by the unfolding, 
in the fullness of time, of a spiritual nature in him 
capable of absolute cognition, — when he should have 
become conscious as a personal experience of the nature 
of those absolute opposites from which he had been 
receptive, and have surrendered himself, as he must, to 
one or to the other, absolutely and eternally, — the 
destruction of the soul would have been the conse- 
quence : for, whether it should choose an infinite or a 
finite law as the force under the operation of which it 



LAW OF SALVATION. Ill 

should come, the dissipation of its existence would 
become inevitable for reasons already considered in 
describing the effects of spiritual and material Pan- 
theism. Hence the necessity arises that a sphere of 
absolute existence should be formed in which the 
Human principle, — designated in the Scriptures as 
flesh, as earth, and as land, — should be made one with 
an opposite Divine principle, so that the soul could be 
both sustained and supported by the operation of 
infinite and finite force coming to it through a medium in 
ivhich these had not only been reconciled and united, but also 
in which they had been made one with the Natural principle. 
This union of spiritual and natural principles in a 
Divine-Human sphere, — as well as the justification 
and regeneration of the human soul, which was thereby 
rendered possible, — is, therefore, prophesied in the fol- 
lowing passage from Isaiah : — 

u The spirit of the Lord God is upon me \ because 
the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto 
the meek ; he hath sent me to bind up the broken 
hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the 
opening of the prison to them that are bound. 

66 To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, and 
the day of vengeance of our God ; to comfort all that 
mourn ; to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of 
joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of 
heaviness ; that they might be called trees of righteous- 
ness, the planting of the Lord, that might be glorified. 



112 LAW OF TRI-P£RSONALITi r . 

" I will rejoice greatly in the Lord, my soul shall be 
joyful in my God ; for he hath clothed me with the gar- 
ments of salvation, he hath covered me with the robe of 
righteousness, as a bridegroom decketh himself with 
ornaments, and as a bride adorneth herself with her 
jewels. For as the earth bringeth forth her bud, and 
as the garden causeth the things that are sown in it to 
spring forth ; so the Lord God will cause righteousness 
and praise to spring forth before all the nations. 

" For Zion's sake will I not hold my peace, and for 
Jerusalem's sake will I not rest, until the righteousness 
thereof go forth as brightness, and the salvation thereof 
as a lamp that burneth. 

66 And the Gentiles shall see thy righteousness, and 
all kings thy glory : and thou shalt be called by a 
new name, which the mouth of the Lord shall name. 
Thou shalt also be a crown of glory in the hand of the 
Lord, and a royal diadem in the hand of thy God. 
Thou shalt no more be termed Forsaken ; neither shall 
thy land any more be termed Desolate : but thou shalt 
be called, The object of my delight; and thy land the 
wedded matron : for the Lord delighteth in thee and 
thy land shall be married. For as a young man wed- 
deth a virgin, so shall thy restorer wed thee : and as 
the bridegroom rejoiceth in his bride, so shall thy God 
rejoice in thee." 

In the second place, the Incarnation was necessary as 
the means of providing experiences for man that should 



LAW OF SALVATION. 113 

be suggestive of the spiritual. According to a universal 
law of Being already recognized in our statement of 
the Law of Duality, production is not possible without 
the union of an external with an internal, as well as 
an affectional with an intellectual principle. A double 
necessity, therefore, existed in the condition of the soul 
for the Incarnation. While it was necessary, in the first 
place, that a Divine-Human sphere might be originated, 
from which the soul could be sustained and supported 
as a spiritual existence by an influx of spiritual life ; 
it was equally necessary, in the second place, that a 
ground of sensible experiences might be originated that 
should be suggestive of this spiritual life, and furnish an 
external principle, as bodg, in which this internal prin- 
ciple, as soul, could become incarnated as a living, 
active, and productive power, by which its salvation 
and regeneration could be effected. It is therefore 
written, — "How shall they believe in him of whom 
they have not heard ? and how shall they hear without 
a preacher ? and how shall they preach except they be 
sent ? as it is written, How beautiful are the feet of 
them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad 
tidings of good things ! So then, Faith cometh by 
hearing, and hearing by the Word of God." 

This sensible experience, as the letter of spirituality, 

could be provided for man only by u the Word of God" 

incarnated in Flesh ; — by the life and teaching of Jesus 

upon earth, who, as both God and Man, united in him- 

15 



114 LAW OF TRI-PERSONALITY. 

self all spiritual and all natural things as internal and 
external, made one as soul and body by the regenera- 
tion of the external principle. This experience has been 
transmitted to us through the Scriptures of the New 
Dispensation, and through the Churches which he es- 
tablished upon the earth ; containing traditions, rites, 
observances, doctrines, and sacraments, which he will 
preserve as the ground out of which the Divine Seed 
will spring for all time, — furnishing a suggestive 
principle through the means of which spiritual ideas 
derived by intuition, or inspiration, can be realized to 
the soul in forms of spiritual thought. 

It is true that this external experience is not immedi- 
ately productive of spiritual fruit, as the grossly natural 
condition of the Christian tvorld, as we in popular lan- 
guage term it, would seem abundantly to indicate. The 
reason for this is, that a spiritual natural principle must 
first be provided in the individual soul as a ground out 
of which the spiritual itself may be born to it ; it being 
necessary, under the Law of Individuality, that every- 
thing should be provided not only with a physical basis 
as Body, but also with a natural basis as Soul, before a 
spiritual birth can be realized to it, or its regeneration 
effected. And by spiritual natural we mean a principle, 
that, while being natural, and thus discordantly diversi- 
fied, is, at the same time, representative of the spiritual ; 
as if a spiritual soul were united to, without being made 
one with, a natural body ; between which, therefore, 



LAW OF SALVATION. 115 

although spiritually or absolutely antagonistic, there is 
still a natural apprehensive attraction through feeling. 
By the first coming of the Lord, an external natural 
experience representative of the Spiritual is furnished, 
which, by uniting with an internal natural or senti- 
mental experience harmonious with it, produces a ground 
of thought, affection, and activity also representative of 
the Spiritual, and which the Soul supposes to be spir- 
itual. This becomes part and parcel of the individual 
character, and is made one with the individual in the 
several spheres of his natural consciousness, and with 
all the various principles of his nature. Hence the 
great diversity in religious belief, resulting from the 
different positions of individuals ; and the multitude of 
different and differing denominations into which the 
Church has always been divided. This diversity would 
not of course be if the Church were really spiritual ; 
for, although the Catholic Church, as the most perfect 
external representative of Christianity, must represent the 
unity or universality which is inseparable from the spir- 
itual, — and is enabled to do this by enforcing its claim 
to infallibility, and excluding the operation of individual 
thought, — this Church is, as we shall show, not less 
natural for this, but more so, as what it gains in the form 
of spirituality it loses in nearness to the substance. 
This fact is exemplified in the whole progress of the 
Church, as it passes from Catholic to Protestant, — from 
Trinitarian to Unitarian, — and from Unitarian to Tran- 



116 LAW OP TRI-PERSONALITV. 

scendental ; — from which, as the extreme bound of the 
Natural, it must either return to Catholicism, or ascend 
into Spiritualism. Although there is here a continually 
accelerated vastation or dissipation of that which repre- 
sents the spiritual, there is a corresponding approach 
towards the spiritual itself, and preparation for its recep- 
tion. It is only after all these have been passed through 
that the Spiritual itself can be realized ; for that " the 
first shall be last, and the last shall be first," is a law of 
spiritual life, of which the rejection of the Jews and the 
bringing in of the Gentiles was illustrative, and the fol- 
lowing language of Isaiah prophetic : — 

a Lebanon shall be turned into a fruitful field, and the 
fruitful field shall be esteemed as a forest. And in that 
day shall the deaf hear the words of the Book, and the 
eyes of the blind shall see out of obscurity and out of 
darkness. They also that erred in spirit shall coin,e to 
understanding, and they that murmured shall learn 
doctrine. They that destroyed thee shall become thy 
builders ; and they that laid thee waste shall become 
thine offspring. And they shall build up the old 
wastes, they shall raise up the former desolations, and 
they shall repair the waste cities, the desolations of 
many generations. And strangers shall stand and feed 
your flocks, and the sons of the alien shall be your 
ploughmen and vine-dressers. I am sought of them 
that asked not for me; I am found of them that sought 
me not : I said behold me ! behold me ! unto a nation 



LAW OF SALVATION. 117 

that was not called by my name. I will therefore call 
them my people which w T ere not my people, and her 
beloved which was not beloved. And it shall come 
to pass, that in the place where it w r as said unto them, 
Ye are not my people, there shall they be called the 
children of the Living God." 

It is only, then, at the second coming of the Lord, that 
the external teaching of Christ and his Apostles, as 
perpetuated in the Scriptures and in the Churches 
which he established, becomes productive of genuine 
spiritual results ; — it is only when the representative 
truths which have been realized to the soul through 
the means of a union between its sentimental experi- 
ences and its external teaching become suggestive 
of and are united to an Absolute Divine Intelligence, 
communicated to the soul through the spiritual under- 
standing in laws of spiritual life, — that those absolute 
spiritual experiences can be realized by which Salvation 
and Regeneration are effected. Then, " with open face 
beholding as in a glass the Glory of the Lord, we are 
changed into the same image from glory to glory even 
as by the Spirit of the Lord." 

In the third place, the Incarnation was necessary as 
the means of providing experiences for God. Be not 
offended, reader, at so hard a saying. God being him- 
self Absolute Law, cannot be exempt from the operation 
of laws which constitute his own Being. That con- 
sciousness and identity are inseparable we have seen to 



118 LAW OF TRI-PERSONALITY. 

be an established law of existence ; and this being so, 
it is clearly evident that an experience by God of all 
the evils and infirmities of human nature, and their 
removal in Himself, by which the Human should become 
Divine, was absolutely necessary before he could be 
prepared to remove them from the human soul by regen- 
erating it into an image of the Divine Humanity which 
he had thus established ; so that as we had borne the 
image of the earthy, we might now bear the image of 
the heavenly. All this was accomplished by the Incar- 
nation. Being an Infinite Person, the Son by this incar- 
nation necessarily became conscious of every degree of 
imperfection or evil that could possibly be experienced 
by any individual for all eternity ; and it is therefore 
said in the Scriptures that " he took upon himself the sins 
of the ivhole tvorld" By removing these natural imper- 
fections or evils in himself by a regeneration of his own 
Human Principle, he was prepared to remove them from 
all those who should, through Faith, receive him, by 
which they should be made through him at-one with 
God. It is evident that these evils could not otherwise 
have been known to God, and so could never have been 
removed by him. It is therefore that Jesus said, — 
" For the Father judgeth no man, but has committed 
all judgment to the Son, because he is the Son of Man." 
The fact of Incarnation as furnishing this necessary 
experience to the Son as the Saviour of mankind, as it 



LAW OF SALVATION. 119 

has here been stated, is also distinctly recognized by 
the greatest of all the Apostles. He says, — 

" Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of 
Flesh and Blood, he also himself likewise took part of 
the same ; for verily he took not upon him the nature 
of Angels, but he took on him the seed of Abraham. 
Wherefore it behooved him in all things to be made like 
unto his brethren, that he might be a merciful High 
Priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconcilia- 
tion for the sins of the people." 

" For we have not a High Priest who cannot be 
touched with a feeling of our infirmities, but was in all 
points tempted as we are, yet without sin." 

By the statement and application of what are as- 
sumed to be the three primary laws of existence, con- 
stituting the Trinitarian Principle or Law of Tri-Person- 
ality, we have demonstrated the necessity that, as the 
condition of creation, God should exist as a Tri-Person- 
ality constituting three several spheres of Absolute 
Being, as Body, Soul, and Spirit ; and have obtained a 
definite statement of this Tri-Personality which corres- 
ponds with the teaching of the Scriptures, and harmo- 
nizes with that of the Church. We have also demon- 
strated the necessity that, as the condition of salvation 
to mankind, God should become incarnated in Flesh, or 
appear in the atmosphere of earth in the form of a man. 
In doing this, we have not merely demonstrated the 
Divinity of Christ, or the position of the Son as a mode 



120 LAW OF TRI-PERSONALITY. 

of existence in God, or as a part of the personality of 
God ; but we have demonstrated the existence of Christ 
as " the Saviour" or as " the Emanuel ; " who is " God 
ivith us" because he manifests in his own person a Trin- 
ity of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. We have thus 
demonstrated and explained the sense of the Trinitarian 
formula given to us in the Scriptures by John ; because 
we have, by the statement and application of the Law 
of Tri-Personality, succeeded in realizing or producing 
a distinct conception of the " three that hear record in 
Heaven" who constitute " the fullness of God" and also 
the u three that bear tuitness in earth" who constitute 
(i the fullness of the Godhead bodily" 

We are aware that many have presumed to deny the 
genuineness of the Trinitarian formula here alluded to. 
No external authority, however, can be sufficient to 
overthrow or to set aside the internal evidence of its 
truth that has here been presented. We know that it is 
genuine because it has here been reproduced by the 
application of Universal Laws of Being which are more 
clearly demonstrable than the simplest fact, because all 
created things, without a single exception, can be pro- 
duced as proof. We are not now dependent upon 
external authority even for the support of the spiritual 
truths of Revelation ; but are able to explain, to verify, 
and even to reproduce them. This conception of the 
modes of existence and manifestation in God will ena- 
ble us to arrive at others equally clear, comprehensive, 



LAW OF SALVATION. 121 

and harmonious, of all the Ideas included in Christian- 
ity, of which the doctrines or dogmas of the Church are 
only imperfect and discordant natural substitutes ; and, 
being founded in Absolute Law, which is the essence of 
Eationality, must remain as definite and unchangeable 
as those of the Church are uncertain and fluctuating. 
These, with the laws in which they are founded, and 
the conclusions to which they lead, will furnish princi- 
ples of interpretation by which the internal spiritual 
sense of the Scriptures may be unfolded, and its Let- 
ter, — now discordant and obscure, and susceptible of 
all kinds of interpretation, — be made perfectly harmo- 
nious, intelligible, and determinate. 

The writer deeply feels the responsibility which he 
assumes in thus claiming to have stated for the first 
time the only absolute and permanent, and thus the 
only true foundation that can possibly be laid for 
Ontological, Theological, and Psychological Truth, 
which must include the sum of all our knowledge. It 
is a position that nothing but the most entire and 
unqualified assurance of the truth and the importance 
of this foundation, continued and continually increasing 
for a series of years, because confirmed by long reflec- 
tion, conscious experience, and extensive application, 
could induce him to take. This statement is presented 
by him confidently as being the only rational founda- 
tion upon which the existence of God and his peculiar 
attributes and relations to the human race, as these 
16 



122 LAW OF TRI-PERSONALITY. 

have been taught in the Scriptures and recognized 
by the Church, can be sustained. It is true that the 
existence and attributes of God may be in some sort 
proved upon Scriptural grounds, or by logical argu- 
ments based upon language of the Scriptures. But 
there are two very serious objections to any exclusive 
reliance upon such grounds and such reasoning. In 
the first place, this language is susceptible of a great 
variety of interpretations, and the genuineness of pas- 
sages important to the argument is very extensively 
questioned. In the second place, this language can, 
at the best, furnish nothing but an external dogmatic 
ground of reasoning which must to all minds be less 
satisfactory than that which is internal and self-evident, 
while to many minds it would, unless confirmed by 
other evidence, be entirely worthless. In view of these 
considerations it must be evident that a demonstration 
of these great facts that shall be complete and final, 
because founded in laws which, while they are self- 
evident, may be illustrated, and thus demonstrated, by 
reference both to the Scriptures and to all the phe- 
nomena of natural existence, must be the greatest 
possible desideratum, and must lead, in truth, to " the 
end of controversy" upon the subject of Theology. 

Now although the external evidence furnished by 
the phenomena of Nature, illustrating and demonstrat- 
ing these laws, has not here been presented, the internal 
evidence of their truth has been given in showing that 



LAW OF SALVATION. 123 

the cause of existence must necessarily be in exact 
correspondence with them. Besides this, we have 
shown that these identical laws have been proclaimed 
in the Scriptures in the most decided and unmistakable 
manner. We have shown that they are there established 
as Universal Laws according to which everything must 
exist; so that the question now to be settled is not, 
What are the Universal Laws of Existence ? but, How 
has Nature been constituted, and hoiv is it governed in 
correspondence with these laivs? Our system is to be 
the answer to this question. We shall there make an 
application of these laws, and show that their promul- 
gation in the Scriptures is neither poetical, vague, or 
merely abstract, but is capable of the most extensive 
practical application. By this . means Ontology, The- 
ology, and Psychology, which have heretofore been so 
decidedly hostile to each other and so discordant in 
themselves, will be harmoniously united in one system, 
and their reality as absolute science demonstrated. In 
doing this we shall, as I have before said, realize 
Philosophy in its legitimate or absolute character as 
The Science of things Divine and of things Human. 



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